Forget About It
by Hubchub
Summary: Mallow, the half-jerk half-genius Litwick, wakes up in Pallet Town to find his memory completely erased. Now he must journey across the world and do whatever it takes to find out who he was. Well, no one ever said it was going to be easy. Or he had to be happy about doing it. *That's right! I'm back and better than ever, baby! Chapter 9 is finally up!*
1. Chapter 1: The Short Chapter

**Chapter 1: The Short Chapter**

Have you ever had one of those mornings where the sun is just so annoyingly bright it practically rapes your good night sleep away? Well, Litwick was having one of those mornings. The Litwick awoke with a groan, as he rubbed his yellow eyes awake. Where was he? He doesn't remember anything from last night. Or his name. Or his favorite color.

Actually, he couldn't remember anything!

The Litwick looked around at his surroundings to see if he could remember something. He was sitting under a towering tree, its massive shadow blanketing the lush grass. There were a few ordinary looking houses here and there, and 1 large, grey building at the edge of the small town.

All in all, a very uninteresting town. And it didn't spark any memories.

The Litwick stood up and wiped grass off his ghostly cheeks.

"Where am I?" He groaned.

He looked around until he saw something out of the corner of his eye bouncing around. He walked over to get a closer look. Well...Litwicks don't exactly walk anywhere. They kind of, oh what's the word I'm looking for...schlomp? Yes. Litwicks schlomp. The Litwick schlomped over for a closer look.

It was a pokemon. It was green with some sort of bulb growing off its back. It hopped around like some kind of frog-like creature.

"Hey! Frogger!" Litwick called out to it.

The pokemon turned around, smiled and hopped over.

"Oh, hello there! I haven't seen a pokemon like you around here before." It said.

"So what? Do you want a medal or something?" Litwick sighed. "Can you just tell me where I am?"

The pokemon frowned. "Well aren't you rude. You're in the Kanto region, PalletTown. I'm a Bulbasaur and I-"

"Fascinating." Litwick interrupted. He turned around and tilted his head. "How the heck did I get to pallet town?"

"Hey!" Bulbasaur yelled. "I was trying to have a conversation with you!"

Litwick continued to ignore him, and kept thinking. "Let's see...I woke up under a tree in a really lame town..."

"Helloooo" Bulbasaur said, ignored still.

"...Then I meet a really annoying pokemon..."

"I can still hear you y'know."

"...And all my memories were completely erased." Litwicks head was spinning. _What does it all mean? _He thought, _Is there even a connection?_

"Huh? Your memories were completely erased?" Bulbasaur asked.

Litwick turned back around. "Yes, I don't remember anything. Thanks for finally catching up" He says rolling his eyes.

"Do you remember anything?"

"Let's see...when I said I don't remember anything...you ask me if I remember anything. You're not very bright are you Snotball?"

"That's not what I meant! What I meant to say was what DO you know?"

Litwick looked at Bulbasaur for several seconds.

"That's interesting."

"What is?"

"I know that you cry a lot, you sleep on your left side, you had berries earlier today, you take a lot of morning walks and you hurt one of your legs a while back."

Bulbasaur's jaw dropped open.

"How…how could you possibly know all of that?"

"Simple: you have water stained cheeks and the spots are smudged, probably from wiping away tears. You have an indent of your arm on the left side of your face which means you must have slept on it which also means you sleep on your left. You have bits of berry stuck in your teeth and there is a blister on the bottom of your heel which can only get there from walking constantly. And with the way you hop around, it must've appeared from long periods of walking, I guessed that the long walking came from morning walks considering that appears what you're doing now. And finally, you have a slight limp which favors your right side more than left which signifies hurt leg, but not a lot of limp means it's almost recovered fully which means the injury must have been a while back. Now, what I find interesting is that I know all that and yet I don't know anything about who I am."

"That. That was amazing."

"Whatever you say, Snotball."

"My name's not Snotball! It's Bulba-"

"That's great" Litwick says turning back around.

"Oh for the love of..."

Litwick started thinking again.

"My first priority is to bring back my memories, or at least figure out why they're gone."

Litwick schlumped over to a nearby puddle and stared into his reflection. He was as white as a ghost (Go figure, right?) and had what appeared to be a purple flame flickering above his melty looking head. It was if he looked like a candle.

"The first thing I need to do is figure out what kind of pokemon I am."

Bulbasaur hopped over next to him. "If you're looking to see what pokemon you are, there's a museum in PewterCity that has info on all kinds of pokemon. I'm sure you could find out there."

"How would one get to PewterCity?" Litwick asked.

"Come with me," Bulbasaur said as he hopped away.

Litwick quickly followed.

Eventually, Bulbasaur stopped at a small path that cut through the thick trees that surrounded the city. It was coated in tall grass.

"Geez doesn't anyone mow this dump?" Litwick grumbled.

"Just follow this path north until you reach ViridianForest. Go through the forest, and you'll end up in PewterCity."

"Alright, thanks Bulbapedia," Litwick said as he started schlomping down the path.

"MY NAME IS BULBASAUR!" He yelled.

"Oh, whatever, Snotball."

"AAARRGG!" Bulbasaur raged.

Bulbasaur stomped away. He had never met a more frustrating pokemon in his life. Then he stopped. He turned to watch Litwick leave. Although Litwick was a complete ass, he had to follow him. It was his only chance of getting out of this place.

And he wasn't happy about it at all.


	2. Chapter 2: Battle on Route 1

**Chapter 2: Battle on Route 1**

"Wait!" Bulbasaur cried. He skidded to a halt behind Litwick.

"What?" Litwick griped, trying to read a sign he had found.

"ROUTE 1" it read, "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE RATATA. THOSE LITTLE TURDS DON'T NEED ANYMORE FOOD."

Route 1 was an interesting route. The path snaked all over the place around several hills that looked rather easy to jump off of, although they didn't look as easy to climb back up. The path was littered with patches of tall grass that swallowed chunks of the road. Several humans could be seen wandering around minding there own business.

"Can't you see I'm trying to read?" Litwick frowned.

"Listen...uh...I was just wondering...if uh...I could maybe come with you?" Bulbasaur asked with lillipuppy eyes.

Litwick raised an eyebrow. "Come with me? Why?"

"It's uh...well I have a package arriving in Pewter City and I just wanted to tag along." He squeaked.

Litwick paused for a moment. "Tauroscrap." He exclaimed. "What's the real reason?"

"What are you talking about? That is the reason!"

Litwick sighed.

"First of all, you knew your way to Pewter City almost the instant I asked, which means you've been there several times, correct?"

"Well yeah but-"

"Then you've made it clear that I'm a pain in your grass since I got here. And yet you're still here following me, am I right?"

"Yes but what does that-"

"So you don't need to travel with me, and you don't want to travel with me?"

"Well I suppose that's true but you see-"

"Plus pokemon can't order packages. That would be stupid."

Bulbasaur stood there stunned. "What-how did you..." Then he bowed his green head in defeat. "Oh it's true. I don't really have a package waiting for me..."

"Just as I thought." Litwick snuffed.

"Listen, I've been living here all my life with my two pals Squirtle and Charmander. We used to go to Pewter City all the time. It was a lot of fun. But then one day, two trainers came and claimed them as their starter pokemon, leaving me here all alone. I'm afraid I might be stuck here alone forever..." Bulbasaur paused to wipe some tears out of his eyes. "So please...please just let me come with you."

Litwick stood there and looked at the sad figure in front of him. After awhile of thinking, he looked him dead in the eyes and said...

"No."

"What?"

"No. I don't want you to come with me. I mean look at you. You're just a big crybaby who only had 2 friends. No thanks. The last thing I need is Mr. Lonely following me and crying over whatever I do. Listen, just go home and make some friends or something, alright?" Litwick said as he started schlomping away.

Bulbasaur stood there stunned again. Then he fills up with rage. He charges around Litwick and blocks his path.

"Now you listen here, you giant marshmallow, you are the biggest jerk I've ever met in my entire life!"

"What? You got a problem, Bulbapedia?"

Bulbasaur started shaking with rage.

"It's...BULBASAUUURR!" He screamed.

"Oh, get over yourself," Litwick says waving him away.

"Jerk!" Bulbasaur snipes, getting into Litwick's face.

"Reject!" Litwick snipes back, getting into Bulbasaur's face.

There must have been an electric type nearby, because sparks were flying between the two angry pokemon. The two took a couple steps back, not taking they're eyes off each other.

"I can't take anymore of you! I'm going to shut that big mouth of yours!" Bulbasaur glared.

"Oh yeah? You think you can take me? Bring it on booger butt!" Litwick says edging him on.

Bulbasaur grinned. He used to brawl with his pals all the time. _This asshole has no idea what he's dealing with _He thought.

Suddenly, Litwick's eyes lit up like a Christmas light, giving him a massive headache. "AAARRRRGGGGHHH!" He cries while clenching his head in agony. Memories came flooding into his head about battling. All the types, stats, advantages, disadvantages, items, status problems came flooding back into his head. All except one move, he couldn't remember attacks for some reason. Then as quickly as his eyes lit up, they faded back to normal, taking his headache with him.

He let go of his head and sighed. He just had a memory spark. Wanting to battle must have triggered battle memories.

_Well that's interesting_he thought.

"Alright then!" Bulbasaur yells, unaware of what just happened to Litwick. "Let's see how you handle my Tackle!"

Bulbasaur makes a massive charge, so powerful it kicked up a giant plume of dust behind him as he collides into the surprised Litwick. But then something strange happened.

Instead of making the usual powerful smash into Litwick, like Tackle is supposed to, he phased right through Litwick and crashed face first into the ground.

Litwick laughed to himself.

"Well, I guess I'm a ghost type. That explains why I know this move!"

Suddenly Litwick emitted a horrible, ear-splitting noise that froze Bulbasaur in place. He then dashed at the stunned pokemon at a speed so fast, you could barely see him, and finally punching Bulbasaur right square in the jaw. Bulbasaur was sent flying into a nearby tree and smashed into the solid trunk.

Bulbasaur fell from the tree with a loud thud.

"What the hell was that?" He sputtered.

"That was Astonish" Litwick giggled. He was enjoying this. "By emitting a cry, I make you flinch, followed by a punch that takes advantage of your stunned state"

Bulbasaur cringed. He had never fought against a move like that before. And now Tackle doesn't work on him? Just who exactly _is _this guy? Bulbasaur was just going to have to try something else.

"What about this, Vine Whip!" Bulbasaur cried. Two vines (surprise surprise) shot out of the side of the bulb on his back. One vine grabbed Litwick and firmly grasped him in a strangling bind. The other started...well whipping him as many times as possible.

Litwick tried to get away, but the vine stayed strong and kept its grip. He then starts sucking in air, preparing for another Astonish.

"Oh no you don't!" Bulbasaur snaps. He then grows the vine holding Litwick, tangling it around his mouth blocking him from yelling.

"What are you going to do now that you can't use Astonish, smartass?" Bulbasaur mocked.

_This is _*SLAP* _bad_ Litwick thinks. Or at least tries to think while getting slapped by the other vine_. If I don't _*SLAP*_ do something _*SLAP*_ I'll never survive _*SLAP*_ these _*SLAP*_ ARCEUSDAMN VINES _*SLAP*

Then his eyes lit up. He was getting another memory spark. His memory was once again flooded with memories of another move. After the headache, his eyes turned back to normal.

Bulbasaur laughed at the condition Litwick was in. "Geez you can sure take a beating. But it's time to end this!" Bulbasaur reaches over behind him with the whipping vine and grabs a large nearby rock with it. "It's a shame you weren't a complete ass. We could have been friends."

He then lifts the rock way above his head preparing to strike onto the helpless Litwick. "Goodbye, marshmallow!"

_Not yet_Litwick thought. The whip in front of his mouth began turning hotter and hotter until it suddenly burst into flames.

"What?" Bulbasaur exclaims.

The flame spread across the vine, burning the green rope to ash. The flame quickly spread all the way back to Bulbasaur, who burst into flames as well. The vine holding the rock burned as well, dropping the giant earth onto Bulbasaur's head.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" He screamed, writhing in pain. He grabbed his head as he rolled around trying to get rid of the enveloping flames.

"Good thing I remembered Ember just in time." Litwick panted. That was too close for his comfort. Bulbasaur had a pretty tough vine whip, and he was not sure how much more of it he could take.

The rolling pokemon finally put out the flames. He lied on the ground trying to muster the strength to get back up. After several failed attempts, he lied there, defeated.

Litwick schlomped over and bent down so he made eye contact with

"You need to male up," Litwick told him, "You're not just running away from loneliness. You could have left at anytime. Which means someone's just not letting you leave. You need to travel with me so you have an excuse to finally get out of town without feeling guilty. If you really want to go that bad, just go. Don't let anyone hold you back."

A tear dripped down Bulbasaur's face. Litwick hit it right on the money. Bulbasaur mustered the last of his strength to look him in the face.

"Wh-who...who ARE you?" He managed to say.

"I don't know." He replied with a grin. And with that, he punched Bulbasaur straight in the face, knocking him out.

Litwick had won.

He got back on the road and continued without another word. _Something's wrong_ He thought. _If I was hit with all that battle knowledge, that means I was in fights before my memory got erased. A LOT of fights._

Litwick sighed. At least the rest of his journey was going to be smooth sailing from then onward, right?

Litwick shook his head. Even he knew this journey was going to be a pain in his ghost-white ass.


	3. Chapter 3: Through the Twisted Trees

**Chapter 3: Through the Twisted Trees**

It was such a beautiful morning. Everything you could want in a morning seemed to be happening. The sun was perfectly warming the air, and yet it was filled with a cool zephyr that blew in. The clouds were few, but just enough to make the sky look relaxed and happy. The air had that smell as if it had rained the previous night. Everything was just so perfect! To an ordinary pokemon, existing in such a wonderful morning would fill their hearts with loads of joy and lift anyone's spirits.

But then again, this Litwick was no ordinary pokemon.  
He's kind of a douche bag.

"Why am I not at this stupid forest yet? If I had feet they'd be killing me right now!" He griped.

"If ye be looking fer a forest, it's not much farther," A musty voice emitted from somewhere.

Litwick circled around to find the source of the must. "Who said that?"

"I did," A large Raticate limped out of what seemed like nowhere. It had an eye patch and a cane. The cane was full of teeth marks as if someone had been chewing on it for awhile. It's fur was dirty and it had several scars on it's body.

It made a heavy cough, and then spoke in that old, creaky voice it had.  
"If yer going to the forest, be warned. The trees grow in a maze, and the place is filled with toxic pokemon and other creepy critters."

"You're a creepy critter yourself," Litwick muttered under his breath.

The Raticate started to circle around Litwick now. "A lot of pokemon go into the forest, and very few make it out."

"Wow, how cliché."

"You've been warned," said the Raticate, as it started limping away.

"Hey, have you-" Litwick says, but the Raticate was gone almost as quickly as it appeared. He frowned.

"Well that was stupid," he says, and schlomps on.  
"I don't even know what that creepy guy was talking about. A forest can't be that bad...right?"

Litwick stopped in his tracks.  
He had made it to the forest.  
Yes, it was that bad.

(0++0) (This symbol represents a break in the story by the way)

Viridian Forest was massive. A giant wall of trees stretched as far as one could see from left to right. The trees seemed to scrape the clouds they were so tall. Then again, it does look a lot bigger from a pokemon's perspective, but I think you get it.

"Oh man, this is going to suck..." Litwick moped. He took a couple deep breaths and headed into the forest. There was no turning back now.

The inside of the forest was very dark and noisy. The grass was way overgrown in many places, and it had that "bug" stink. Not like stinkbug "bug" stink, but "BUG" stink.

"I need to get out of this dump as quickly as possible," Litwick says as he quickened his step. The forest just reeked of adventure (and bugs) and the last thing he needed was to be thrown into some wacky situation that kept him from moving on.

"Hey! Hey you!" A voice called out.  
Too late

Litwick ignored the voice hoping it was being yelled at to him.

"Hey! You with fire!"

Lots of other pokemon have fire.

"Hey! Candle guy!"

Uh, lots of other pokemon...look like candles?

"Hey! You with the fire on your head and looks like a melty candle and is ignoring me!"

Damn.  
Litwick turned to see who was calling him.

He was a rather odd pokemon. He was a giant bug with huge drills for hands.

"What?" Litwick snapped.

The bug buzzed in closer to Litwick.  
"Um, hello! Uh...I'm Pokey! Pokey the Beedrill! I would shake your hand, but I might poison you! Ha-ha!" The pokemon says awkwardly.

Litwick continued to stare at Beedrill, waiting for an answer.

"Yes well, uh...listen, I don't exactly know you, but I was wondering if you could help me with something."

Litwick frowned.  
"Yeah, no thanks," He says and continued on.

"Wait! You don't understand! It's important!" Beedrill cried.

"I bet. But, I still don't care."

Pokey flew in front of Litwick with much speed.  
"Wah!" Litwick cries in surprise and falls on his ghostly white ass. "How did you...geez your fast!"

"C'mon! Please? I could really use your help." Pokey begged.

"Again, I don't care," Litwick says. He stands up and wipes dirt of his rump. "Now if you don't mind, I need to get through this stupid forest."

Pokey watched sadly as Litwick left. Then he got an idea and zoomed back in front of Litwick.  
"WHAT TH-" Litwick cries as he falls back on his butt. "Will you stop that?"

"I tell you what, if you help me, I'll get you out of this forest!"

"Look, Pocky..."

"_Pokey_"

"WHATEVER. I don't need your help, and I don't want to give you mine, so shoo fly and don't bother me."

"You say that now, but after awhile in the forest, you'll be BEGGING for my help."

Litwick laughed. "I think I can walk through a couple trees without your help."

Beedrill flew up to a tree and relaxed on a hefty branch. "OK, suit yourself. I'll be right here if you change your mind."

_Whatever makes you happy, moron_Litwick thought to himself, and schlomped away.

After what seemed like forever of walking, Litwick could finally see light in the dark forest.

"Alright I found it! That must be the exit through those bushes. Take THAT mother nature!" Litwick cheered as he rushed towards the opening. He burst through the leaves and...

"Huh?"  
The trees still towered overhead. He was still in the forest.  
"CRAP!" Litwick yelled in frustration.

"Having fun?" Pokey mocked from his tree branch.

Litwick froze.  
_Pokey?_ He thought, _Oh no...not only have I not found the exit, but I've also just went in a complete circle!_

"What's your name my friend?" Pokey asked, smiling at his frustration.

"Listen here butt-face: I'm not your friend and I'm not going to help you! And I'm going to find a way out of this stupid forest if it's the last thing I do!" Litwick yelled.

"I'm just asking for your name." Pokey shrugged.

"I don't know my name!"

Pokey sat up from his cozy recline. "You don't know your name? What are you stupid or something?"

"No I'm not stupid! My memory was either completely erased or I lost it, so now I have to figure out who I am."

Pokey blinked.  
"Well, even if your memory is gone, you still got to have a name, right? So how about...Mallow?"

"Mallow? What kind of dumb name is Mallow?"

Pokey shrugged, "Well you kind of look like a marshmallow."

Mallow laughed. "There's no way I'm taking that name."

"Too late. Your name already changed in the dialogue."

"How did you…UGH! I'm leaving!" Mallow said as he hurried away.

"That way? But you just went that way."

Mallow stopped. Did he? He looked around. There were 10 different paths from this spot. How was he supposed to know which ways he had gone? They all looked the same.

Then he got an idea.

Mallow grabbed a rock and placed on the path he'd been on. He grabbed another and placed it on the next path he was heading down.

_I'll place a rock on the paths I've been on. That way, I won't go on the same path twice, and eventually I'll find my way out of here in no time! _Mallow planned. He smiled and rushed down the path.

This repeated for several hours. Mallow would place a rock and run down a path. Each one found some way to lead him back to the spot with Pokey (who laughed every time Mallow came back to him), but Mallow was not going to give up.

Eventually he headed down the 9th path.

Mallow laughed. "This path is either the exit or not. If it isn't, that means I only have one more path left: the path out of here. Checkmate Viridian Forest!"

Mallow reached the end of the path, were he saw some bushes with light coming through them. After crawling past the bushes, he found himself back at Pokey.

Wrong again. But no matter.

"Welcome back, Mallow!" Pokey giggled.

Mallow chuckled back at Pokey.  
"For your information, Pokey, I only have one more path out of here. So this is the last time I'll be seeing you!"

"One more? But you still have 4 paths open."

"What?"

Mallow looked around. Pokey was right. There were still 4 paths with no rocks on them.

"What's going on?" Mallow grew very worried. He counted the paths. There were still 10, but 4 remained unchecked.

But _how_?

"I suppose now would be a good time to mention that this time of year, Pidgeys collect rocks and sticks to build there nests with." Pokey giggled, "They've been stealing your rocks this whole time."

"WHAT?"

Mallow turned around to see a Pidgey steal a rock from one of his paths. Pokey was right again.

Mallow tried to keep his balance from the sheer exhaustion.

"No...NO...NOOO!" He cried.

He fell on his back, trying to keep himself from crying. He looked up at the trees that kept him trapped here with disgust. If trees could have troll faces he's absolutely sure they would have it.

Pokey flew over above Mallow's head.

"So, are you ready to help me now?" He asked with a grin.

Mallow sat up and bowed his head in defeat. After a long pause Mallow looked up at Pokey.

"OK...what do you want?"


	4. Chapter 4: Leveling Out the Playing Fiel

**Chapter 4: Leveling Out the Playing Field**

"So explain to me what exactly you want me to do." Mallow said, following Pokey.

Pokey was leading him down a path he didn't see earlier, hidden away by overgrown grass.

Pokey stopped suddenly.

"We're almost there." He said.

"Almost WHERE?"

Pokey turned to face Mallow.  
"Alright listen closely. The forest is divided into 2 different tribes: The Butter Tribe which consist of Caterpies, Metapods, and Butterfries, and the Drill Tribe which consist of Weedles, Kakunas, and Beedrills."

"You guys aren't very creative at naming things are you?"

Pokey shrugged. "I blame lazy story writing. Anyway, our tribes have been at war for a long time now, and we've reached a point of stalemate. That is, until 3 days ago. The Butters snuck into our home village and kidnapped many of our children. They sent us a ransom note that said 'If you want your children back alive, surrender immediately. Do not try and rescue them. The only person who knows where they are is Quiver.' So as you can see, not so easy getting them back."

Mallow tilted his head.  
"Quiver?"

"Quiver is the Butter Tribe's most powerful warrior. Some even say she's the most powerful in the forest. So our village elders sent me after the kids."

"You? Why you?"

Pokey cleared his throat and wiped imaginary dirt of his chest.  
"Well, I don't mean to brag, but I'm the Drill Tribe's best warrior!"

Mallow looked at him with disbelief.

"It's true!" Pokey brags, "So that's where you come in. I'm going to be completely honest, I've seen Quiver battle, and she is WAY better than me. Having a fire type on my side would really balance out the playing field."

"How do you know I'm a fire type? I don't even know what pokemon I am, remember?"

"Your head is on fire. You're a fire type."

"I guess that makes sense."

_Ghost and fire type_ Mallow thought. _What an odd typing..._

Pokey moved over to a bush where you could see light coming through. Mallow prayed that it didn't lead them back to that damn spot again.

"Do you think you can handle it?" Pokey grinned.

Litwick frowned. "Do I really have a choice?"

"Good point. OK then! Let's kick some Butter butt!"

And with that, Pokey charges through the bushes.

"This is so stupid," Mallow grumbled as he followed.

(0++0)

The bushes led to a large clearing. And by large I meant VERY large. The field was covered with flowers of all sorts of colors. There were a few tall trees here and there, but besides that the field was empty.

Well that and a floating figure hovered in the center of the field.

"What is this place?" Mallow asked.

"This is the most secret part of the forest," Pokey answered, waving his hand-drill across the landscape like some kind of tour guide, "Only the two tribes know about this, and we use this for the most sacred battles."

Mallow yawned, unimpressed.  
"Your tribes just sound like a bunch of fruit-loops."

"You're early," a tender voice rang from the middle of the field.

The hovering figure turned around and flew in closer. It was a butterfly-like pokemon with large, beautiful, and symmetrical white wings.

"I'm Quiver the Butterfree," she said with a bow.

Pokey returned the bow.  
"Hi! I'm Pokey the Beedrill and this is my friend, Mallow!"

"I'm not his friend and that's still a stupid name." Mallow grumbled.

Quiver looked at them and grew sad.  
"I suppose you're here for the location of the Weedles, am I right?" she says, in the soothing voice she had.

Pokey grinned and readied a fighting stance.  
"Sorry, but I'm going to get that information no matter what."

Quiver backed up and readied her own stance.  
"Just try and take it from me!" She taunted. Her voice didn't sound as pleasant as it did before.

"With pleasure!"

Pokey flew upwards in the sky with lightning speed. His drills grew at least 30% larger than before. He pointed them down at Quiver and dashed towards her.

"Twineedle!" He yelled.

But Quiver was faster, and floated out of the way at the last second, causing Pokey to impale himself into the ground.

"Wow, you pokemon sure do get right down to business." Mallow pointed out.

"Psybeam!" Quiver exclaimed, completely ignoring Mallow.

A musical noise emitted from Quiver, and then a rainbow beam shot out of Quiver's mouth and headed straight for Pokey. He struggled to get out of the way, but his drills were stuck in the ground. The beam blasted into Pokey, sending him flying across the field. The impact created a strange explosion on impact, as a giant sphere of light erupted from the point of contact and faded away shortly after.

It was pretty cool looking if you asked me.

"Well, Mallow? Are you scared of my power?" Quiver boasted.

"Listen here, fruit-loop, no matter how strong you are, bug types are always weak to fire!" Mallow replied.

He then sucked in his breath, and used Ember. The small, smoldering shot blasted into Quiver's left wing.

Direct hit!

But Quiver just shook her head and laughed.  
"Is that the best you can do?" She chuckled.

_What the...she just took that Ember like it was nothing! _Mallow thought.

Quiver then returned the fire (get it?) with another Psybeam, which nailed Mallow right in the face. He followed Pokey, as he too was sent flying.

Mallow crashed onto the other side of the field, leaving behind a large hole in the flower bed.

Pokey quickly buzzed over to him.  
"Are you OK?"

Mallow sat up and wiped bits of dirt and flowers off his arms.  
"I hope you have a better battle plan, because my attacks aren't doing anything." Mallow sputtered.

"Um...well...no, not really."

"What? You idiot! How can you go-"

A musical cry rang out.  
"LOOK OUT!"

Pokey grabbed Mallow and flew away, barely moving out of the path of a Psybeam.

"Watch out, she's right behind us! And she's closing in fast!" Mellow exclaimed.

Pokey turned around to see Quiver right behind him. The musical noise emitted from her as she prepared another Psybeam.

"Quick! Do a barrel roll!" Mallow told Pokey.

Pokey listened, and barely rolled out of the way of another powerful blast.

"You can't run forever!" Quiver laughed as she prepared another Psybeam.

"Then I'll just counter attack!" Pokey replied, as he made a dive to the ground dodging the Psybeam. He placed Mallow on the ground and then flew back up, turning towards the pursuing Butterfree.

"Poison Sting!" He yelled.

His drill's turned purple, and dashed towards Quiver. He smashed into her, sending the two plummeting into the ground. Pokey lifted himself of her still body. He hovered above her, to see if she was still alive.

"Did I do it?"

Quiver's eyes burst open.  
"Not even close!" she laughed.

She blasted Pokey in the face with yet another Psybeam and made him relive his past experience of flying across the field.

"You know, you aren't that bad." Quiver admitted, "It's time I show you why they call me 'Quiver'!"

Suddenly, Quiver started twitching in a wild fashion. It was almost like some sort of crazy dance. As she flailed around, you could've sworn she was glowing...

Pokey eyes grew wide with fear.  
"Oh no..."

"You know, for being your tribe's best warrior, you kind of suck." Mallow said schlomping over to Pokey. He looked over at the mad dance Quiver was doing. "What's wrong with her? Is she having a seizure or something?"

"That's her signature move, Quiver Dance."

"Quiver Dance?"

"It's a move that not only boost her special attack and defense, but she also gets faster as well."

"That's ridiculous!"

"I know. That move is what makes her the most powerful pokemon in the forest."

"Oh stop it, you're embarrassing me!" Quiver giggled right behind Mallow.

Mallow quickly turned around and gasped in surprise. She must have finished her dance and was so fast he didn't even see her go behind him.

The musical noise rang out from her, even louder now. Pokey quickly flew in and barely grabbed Mallow out of the way of yet another Psybeam. This Psybeam she emitted was even larger than before.

Pokey flew as fast as he could to the opposite side of the field and placed Mallow down.

"Stay here," He instructed and flew back towards the middle. Quiver followed his example, and the two floated in the middle. They were perfectly aligned. It was as if the field was a giant stadium.

"It's time to show you why...well actually I don't know why people call me Pokey. Anyway, here's my signature move!" Pokey scoffed.

Pokey then moved side to side repeatedly at an amazing speed. He was moving so fast you could almost see 2 of him.

But there _was _two of him.

The two Pokeys moved side to side making another two.

And again.

And then finally one more time. Before Mallow could tell what just happened, there were 16 Pokeys hovering above the ground.

"What do you think?" They all chimed in unison, "This is Double Team. It's a move were I make illusions of myself so real, they can hurt you!"

"Impressive," she admitted, "But 0x16 is still 0!"

With that, she used Psybeam and aimed it in the middle of the swarm of Pokeys. But the Pokeys were fast, they all dodged the blast and flew around Quiver making her completely surrounded. They all frantically buzzed around Quiver making attempts to hit her. Some used Twineedle, others used Poison Sting. Some just went around her in circles trying to confuse her.

Nothing was working on her though.

She was way too fast, and dodged every blow. No matter how many attacked she was just too fast.

"Enough of this nonsense!" She yelled, "It's time to end this once and for all!"

Quiver eyes turned pure white and she started to spin in a circle.

"Oh my Arceus, we got to get out of here!" A Pokey cried.

One of the Pokeys flew away from the attack circle and headed towards Mallow as fast as he could. He grabbed him, and flew Mallow behind a nearby tree.

"What's going on now?" Mallow demanded.

"Silver Wind!" Quiver yelled.

A huge windstorm emitted from Quiver. It spiraled out of her and instantly destroyed all the clones that were still by her. Something was odd about this wind. It was made purely of a white powder.

"I had no idea she knew Silver Wind!" Pokey yelled over the wind. The tree over them was bent and was receiving a lot of cuts from the powerful gust.

"Silver Wind is an extremely powerful move," Pokey explained loudly, "It has the ability where it might boost every single stat of hers in one shot!"

Mallow's eyes grew wide with fear.  
"But if she gets the stat boost PLUS the Quiver Dance from earlier, she'll be unstoppable!"

Pokey bowed his head.  
"I know...I'm afraid we aren't going to win this Mallow." He said wearily.

Mallow looked down and saw a flower blowing through the wind. He picked it up and stared at it closely.

"Maybe...maybe we still can win."

He got an idea.

"Huh?"

"Just do exactly as I say, alright?"

Pokey saluted Mallow with a smile.  
"Yes, sir!"

The wind finally settled down. Quiver stopped spinning and began laughing loudly.

She had the stat boost.  
There was no way she was going to lose now.

"Just give up!" She yelled, "I'm invincible now! There's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"That doesn't mean we're not going to try!" Pokey replied behind the tree.

Out of nowhere, a group of Pokeys flew out from behind the tree and charged towards her.

She laughed and a large ball of string grew from her mouth.

"I'm not going to waste time chasing you fools around. String Shot!"

She blasted the ball of gooey string at them. The ball exploded, grappling them all to the ground below.

"Let's find out which one is the real one, shall we?" She giggled.

One by one she blasted the Pokeys with Psybeam. And one by one they turned out to be clones. This went for awhile, until there was only one left.

"You're quite lucky. What are the odds that the last one is the real one?"

Pokey struggled to get away, but the string bounded him to the ground with an unbreakable grip.

A musical noise emitted from her as she prepared the final Psybeam.

"I can't say this wasn't fun, but you were a fool thinking you could beat me. Goodbye, Pokey."

The Psybeam exploded from her mouth, nailing Pokey right in the chest. The ball of light faded out, and the dust cleared away. Quiver gasped.

"What the hell?"

The Pokey was gone. It was just another clone!

"They were all clones!" She roared with anger, "So where's the real one?"

"Right here!"

The real Pokey dashed out of a tree and punched Quiver right in the face with a Poison Sting. She growled with anger and grabbed Pokey by his antennae. She tossed him to the ground. Then she leaned back her head and went into hysterical laughter.

"That was your great plan? A surprise attack? THAT was it? I could take those attacks all day! What were trying to-"

Suddenly, her chest filled up with pain. She fell straight to the ground, clutching her chest in agony.

"Aaaagghhh!" She groaned as she rolled around coughing violently. "What *COUGH* what did you *COUGH COUGH* do to me?"

"You've been poisoned." Mallow said. He walked out from the tree with his hands behind his back and a diabolical grin.

"Huh?"

"I remembered the first time I met Pokey and he warned me to be careful because he could poison me. Poison is a powerful thing, you see. No matter how high your defense is, no matter how fast you are, and no matter how strong you are, when you're poisoned, you WILL die."

"No...no way..."

"The goal was never to get a surprise attack at you. No, that would never work. The goal was to poison you."

"B-but why?"

"Because I can make you a deal." Mallow revealed a black flower that he was holding behind his back.

"This is an old herb that can cure your poison in one bite. So now there are two ways this can end. One: you tell me where the kids are and you can have this herb and live. Or two: you don't and you die slowly and painfully. Either way, you have lost. But one way, you get to live. Choose."

Quiver paused for a minute. Then she let out a sad sigh (which sounded odd, considering her throat was filling with toxins).

"OK...you win. The kids are *COUGH* under a mossy log by the *COUGH* Great Tree. You can't *COUGH miss it."

"I know where that is!" Pokey stated.

_Checkmate _Mallow thought happily. He couldn't explain it, but out smarting Quiver gave him such a rush.

"P-please," Quiver sputtered, "The antidote!"

Mallow tossed the flower over to her. She mustered enough strength to reach out and grab it. But then it crumbled in her hands, turning to ash.

Quiver's jaw dropped as she stared at pile of used to be flower.

"Oh yeah, I forget to mention," Mallow said, "That's not really an herb. It's just a flower I picked and then burned a little."

"You...you're a monster!" She sobbed.

"Yeah well you're a crazy bitch." He replied.

He schlomped over to Pokey feeling very satisfied.

"I can't thank you enough for helping me." Pokey told him.

"I didn't do this for you, remember?" Mallow said.

Pokey laughed.  
"OK, whatever you say, Mr. Grumpy."

"What is going on over here!" An old voice rang out.

Mallow and Pokey turned to see a group of 5 Beedrill buzz in from the forest.

Pokey face-palmed. Or should I say, face-drilled  
"Oh no..."

"Who are you guys?" Mallow asked.

The oldest Beedrill and the leader of the group said: "I'm the elder of the Drill tribe. Here with me is the council and our tribe's strongest warrior."

"But I thought Pokey was the strongest warrior."

"Pokey? This bug is nothing more than a disgrace to our entire tribe!"

Mallow looked over at Pokey.  
"What are you not telling me?" He questioned.

Pokey sighed.  
"Look, here's the truth. It's always been my dream to be a great warrior. So one day I found TM32 (a.k.a., Double Team) dropped by a trainer. I thought it would make me a better fighter. But when I showed everyone my new move, the council told me that learning a TM move was unnatural and is outlawed. It resulted in my immediate banishment. I knew that Quiver always showed up an hour before a battle to meditate, so I thought if I could find out where the kids were before everyone arrived, they would accept me back in their tribe."

"Accept you back?" The Elder roared, "You've dishonored one of our most sacred laws, and now you've dishonored our most sacred battle ritual! You are no longer banished from our village...you are now banished from the entire FOREST!"

"But I-"

"Just GET OUT! NOW!"

Pokey hung his head in shame and flew away without another word. Mallow frowned and schlomped over to the Elder and put on his most innocent face.

"Listen Elder, although I helped in the fight, I believe it's my duty to tell you were the kids are. Do you know the farthest point from the Great Tree?"

"Do you mean the dangerous part of the woods?" The Elder asked.

"Yes that's it! She told us they were pretty hidden, so don't give up looking in that spot."

"Thank you young pokemon. Come on Drills! Those kids need our help!"

And with that, the group flew away.

"Good luck!" Mallow yelled, trying his best not to laugh.

He followed Pokey through the woods. He found him after awhile and schlomped up to him.

"Hey! Sad face! We had a deal! You need to show me out of the forest." Mallow nagged him.

Pokey smiled a little.  
"Since I have no where else to go, can I come with you after we make it out?"

"Even if I said no, you're going to follow me anyway, aren't you?"

"Of course!"

Mallow sighed.  
"OK, fine. Lead the way, moron."

Pokey gave him a salute and that wild grin of his.  
"Right this way!"

Mallow would never admit it, but he was kind of glad Pokey was coming with him. That Double Team of his was going to be very useful down the road. Mallow looked up at the dark, tall trees that towered overhead. He really hoped he'd never have to see these terrible things ever again. Although, he just couldn't shake the feeling he'd forgotten something...

Quiver lied on the ground, writhing in pain.

"Hello?" She cried, "Anyone there?"

She coughed more violently now, and swore if she ever got out of here alive, she would hunt down that ass of a pokemon if it was the last thing she'd ever do.

_Just you wait, Mallow_ she thought. _Just you wait..._


	5. Chapter 5: Mallow VS The Rules

**Chapter 5: Mallow VS the Rules**

"Hey, Mallow! Look at this building!" Pokey shouted, "Ooh! Check out this flower patch! And is that a road? Wow!"

Pokey was flying around like a 5 year old in a candy store, pointing in awe at everything he could.

"Will you knock it off?" Mallow yelled.

"I'm sorry; it's just that I've never been outside the forest before!" Pokey flew over to Mallow, "Have you ever been to Pewter City?"

Mallow pointed to his head.  
"Even if I had been to Pewter City, I wouldn't know it. Memory's gone, remember?"

"Oh I remember. And apparently I remember more than you," Pokey laughed.

Mallow rolled his eyes and looked around him. Pewter City wasn't exactly that small of a place, and he had no idea how he was going to find the museum.

Suddenly his eyes lit up. He was having another memory spark. His head once again filled with a migraine, and this time 2 new moves: Minimize and Smog. His eyes faded back to normal, and his migraine disappeared.

"Are you OK?" Pokey asked in a panicky voice.

"Yeah, I just had a memory spark."

"A what?"

"It's when I remember something from my past, and for some reason my eyes glow and I get a headache. It's rather annoying and random."

"Well, as long as you're OK-Whoa! Check out this big building!" Pokey said as he rushed from Mallow's side.

"Of course, you're headache enough as it is," Mallow muttered.

Mallow schlomped over to see the building for himself. It was a pretty good sized building with a pinkish-purplish roof and brownish paint on the sides. Mallow didn't really agree with the color, but he was just glad he found it. A giant sign in front of it read:

"PEWTER MUSEUM OF SCIENCE: NOW WITH 20% MORE SCIENCE!"

"This is the place," Mallow said, "The museum."

"Why are we going to the museum again?" Pokey asked.

"I was told that somewhere inside, they have records on all the pokemon from everywhere. Figuring out what pokemon I am is the first step in recovering my memory."

"Then let's go!"

Pokey dashed up the stairs with excitement. A large human stepped in his path. He barely fit in his police outfit and he was so bald, you could see your reflection in his forehead.

"Sorry, but no wild pokemon are allowed in the museum," the bald man instructed.

Mallow quickly stepped up next to Pokey.  
"You can't do this!" Mallow argued, "This is unfair! This is segregation!"

"Look, come back with a trainer, or get out of here!"

"You're going to regret this!" Mallow promised as he angrily schlomped away, "I will get into this museum if it's the last thing I do!"

Pokey flew over to Mallow.  
"Now what are we going to do? We aren't allowed in."

"If they won't let us in, then we'll just get in ourselves."

Mallow turned to Pokey.  
"We're going to break into the museum."

"Are you insane! We'll get in serious trouble if we're caught!" Pokey whispered fearing someone might hear them.

"So we won't get caught."

"And how exactly do you plan to break in?"

"First I need a layout of the museum. That's where you come in. I need you to fly around the museum and look inside all the windows. Tell me where all the cameras are."

"Me? Why can't you do it?"

"Because I can't fly, dumbass."

"Oh...right. But what if the guards see me?"

"Well I guess you're just going to have to be sneaky then, won't you?"

Pokey sighed.  
"OK. I'm only doing this for you because you helped me defeat Quiver. After this, any criminal activity you do I want NO part in it."

"Whatever you say. While you were gawking at anything that existed, did you see a pokemart around anywhere?"

"Uh, yeah. Right around that corner. Why?"

"Oh I just need to pick up a few things," Mallow grinned, "Now hurry and go do your job. And if you find anything interesting make sure to tell me, alright?"

Pokey nodded and flew towards the museum. Mallow turned and headed towards the pokemart. As long as he was breaking the law, taking a couple things the store owner won't miss aren't going to be a big deal, right?

(0++0)

Turning the corner, Mallow found the blue-roofed mart. He started to go in, but then saw a bell hanging above the door. If he were to go in, they would know his face and would be able to connect him to the scene.

_Let's just see how my new moves work, _Mallow thought.

Mallow used his new move, Minimize. He started shrink. He kept shrinking until he was down to the size of a grain of rice. He lied down on his side and rolled under the door. He made it in.

Mallow looked around the store, looking where all the supplies he needed were. He closed his eyes, making sure he memorized exactly how many paces the supplies were from him. Then he used his other new move: Smog.

Being a human, you've probably never experienced Smog, have you? Well let me tell you, it isn't exactly a pokemon's favorite move to use. Smog is a move, where a pokemon coughs up a cloud of poisonous smoke. But it feels like a mix of that first time a 6th grader tried smoking a cigarette, and throwing up. It's very unpleasant to any non-poison types. Keep that in mind next time you make your Slugma use Smog.

Anyway, after Mallow finished the nasty move, a large poison cloud filled the entire store.

"What the hell is going on!" The clerk wailed, trying to cover his mouth from the fumes.

Mallow didn't have this move, Smog, for a long time, so he hasn't mastered how to navigate through his own plume of toxins. This is why he memorized where all his supplies were. He dashed around the store, collecting a notebook, markers, and a pack of Yu-gi-oh! cards.

He charged at the door, and headed towards the museum. By the time the Smog cleared, he will already be long gone.

Now he just had to wait for Pokey. Mallow couldn't help but smile. Everything was going to go according to plan so smoothly.

(0++0)

Several hours had passed, and Pokey was getting worried. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find Mallow anywhere!

"Pokey!" A voice cried by the museum. "Down here you idiot!"

Pokey flew over to the museum and looked around.

"Where are you?" He called.

"Over here!" Mallow replied.

Pokey flew to a heavily wooded area right next to the museum.

"What are you doing?" Pokey snapped, "We can't hide right next to the museum!"

"Sure we can," Mallow assured him, "This area has plenty of trees to keep us in hiding, but you can fly up to the top of the tree and keep an eye on our target. Humans always underestimate the hiding power of trees."

"I guess you're right."

"I know I'm right. Find anything interesting?"

"Actually, yes! The place where they keep all their files and science crap is the same room where the police guards do their work."

"Hmmm...that complicates things. No matter, my plan will still work."

Mallow turns back to the notebook he was working on before Pokey got there.

"Where did you get all this stuff?" Pokey demanded.

"I found it," Mallow lied.

Pokey held up his hand-drills.  
"Never mind, I don't want to know."

"Show me exactly where the cameras and all the windows are on this drawing."

Mallow had drawn a map of the museum with the markers he "found". It wasn't a very complicated drawing, considering the museum was just two floors and a side building. Pokey marked all the spots the best he could with no fingers.

"The building attached to the museum is our target," Pokey told him.

"Oh this is going to be good."

Pokey checked out Mallow's battle gear.  
"How do you expect us to infiltrate the museum with some paper and a deck of cards?"

"Those aren't just any cards; those are Yu-gi-oh! cards," Mallow corrected him.

"Whatever! Are you sure this going to work?"

"No. But we need to give it a shot. We will strike at exactly 11:01 tonight. There should only be about two guards hanging around. Go up the tree and be a lookout. Make sure they're not doing anything to disrupt the plan"

"OK," Pokey flew up the tree, "I sure hope you know what you're doing."

"Me too," Mallow sighed.

(0++0)

The bald man from earlier was pacing around, twirling his night stick. He couldn't believe he got stuck with the night shift tonight. It was his least favorite job. It was just so boring! No one ever tried to break into the museum anyway.

Suddenly he heard a crash in the back room. The bald man got out his gun, and rushed over to the door. He stood next to the door and counted to three, just like his guard instructor had told him. He burst into the door with his gun pointing angrily around the room.

"This is the police, hands up!" The bald man roared.

"Calm down," said a scrawny policeman swiveling in his chair. He was supposed to be watching the security monitors, but it was obvious he just woke up from a nap.  
"Someone just threw a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards through the window. The cards flew out of the case and startled me, that's all."

"Damn kids again probably," the bald man assured him.

"Or maybe not, look at this!" The scrawny man swiveled back to monitors. The entire first floor was covered in a massive plume of purple smoke.

"I got to get back out there!" The bald man said as he rushed back to the door.

"Stop! What are you stupid!" The scrawny man snapped, "Someone is using Smog, one breath of that crap and you'll be on the floor puking your guts out. Smog doesn't last very long, and as long as we have our cameras, we can see the culprits when it clears."

The bald man clenched his fist in anger. He knew the scrawny man was right, and he walked back over to the monitors. But then something bad happened. One of the monitors suddenly stopped working.

"What happened?" The bald man barked.

"I don't know." The scrawny man said as he frantically pressed keys on the keyboard, "It's like it just broke!"

One by one, the cameras turned off. Someone was able to navigate through the Smog and reach the cameras with incredible speed.

"They even broke the hidden cameras! It's like they've been spying on this place all day!" The scrawny man panicked.

What the hell is going on?

The bald man walked over to the door. It was one of the doors with a window on it so he could still look outside. He couldn't see much, but what he could see is the Smog clearing up. He signaled the scrawny man to come over. He counted down from three with his fingers, and burst through the door. They walked in, angrily pointing their guns around the room. They went in so fast, they didn't notice the rice-sized Mallow roll under the door.

"This is the police, hands up!"

But the room was empty.  
"Look! Someone left a card in the middle of the room!" The bald man pointed out.

"That's not just any card, that's a Yu-Gi-Oh! card," the scrawny man corrected.

"Whatever!"

The bald man bent down and picked it up.  
"It's called The Dark Door."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Suddenly the door to the back room slammed shut and locked behind them.

"We've been tricked!" The bald man yells as he starts banging on the door.

Meanwhile back in the back room, Mallow dug through the cabinets searching for anything about pokemon. This is a lot easier to do when you don't have cops banging on the door yelling at you.

Finally he found a thick book labeled: "National Pokedex". He dug a little deeper and took an atlas as well. The door burst open as the guards finally broke the hatches of the locked door.

"This is the police, hands up!" The bald man yelled for the 3rd time tonight.

"Wait a minute," the bald man gasped, "You're that cranky pokemon from earlier!"

Mallow jumped up on the counter near the window and bowed to the officers.  
"Well this has been fun, gentlemen. But I must be going now."

He used Ember and burned the floor in front of the guards, blocking their path. Mallow burst through the window and was grabbed by Pokey just before hitting the ground. The two flew away before the guards finished putting out the fire.

The scrawny man threw his hat on the ground in anger.

They got away.

It all went according to plan. Mallow loved Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. They were strong enough that when you threw them hard at a window they could break it, yet loose enough that the cards flew everywhere. The noise distracted guard into the back room, and then Mallow locked them in there with Smog. Since Pokey was also a poison type, he could fly through the toxic cloud with ease, disabling all the cameras. He was also fast enough that he could fly out before it cleared to catch Mallow who was going to escape out the window.

_Checkmate _Mallow grinned.

(0++0)

Mallow and Pokey landed back at their hiding spot. As soon as he landed, Mallow flipped through the book trying to find a picture of himself. The best part about being a candle pokemon is you can read in the dark.

"What kind of pokemon are you? How do you do the things you do?" Pokey sang to himself.

"Shut up," Mallow griped, "Hey! I found it!"

Pokey flew over.  
"#607: Litwick," Mallow read, "You were right. I am part fire type."

"Told you," Pokey bragged.

"I evolve into Lampent at level 41, and then Chandelure with a dusk stone. Kick ass!"

"What else does it say?"

"It says here: Litwick shines a light that absorbs the life energy of people  
and Pokemon, which becomes the fuel that it burns."

"Whoa! You can do that!"

"Apparently so. That's creepy and cool at the same time."

Pokey pointed at the book.  
"It says Litwick's come from Celestial Tower in the Unova region."

"The Unova region?"

Mallow got out the atlas he "borrowed" and flipped to the page about pokearth.

"Unova region?" He said, "But that's on the other side of the world!"

"Why would you be all the way in Pallet Town if you come from Unova?"

Mallow closed the books.  
"I don't know, but I'm about to find out."

"Where are we headed to now?" Pokey asked with excitement.

"First, we need to return these books. And I know just the place."

(0++0)

Several police cars were parked outside the museum. Officer Jenny stormed up to the two museum officers.

"Would someone care to explain to me how a pokemon broke into the museum with a deck of cards?" She yelled.

"Those weren't any cards; they were Yu-Gi-Oh! cards," the bald man squeaked.

"Whatever! You two are in a lot of trouble!" She scolded.

"Excuse me, officer?" The store clerk said behind her.

"What!?" She snapped.

"Uh, someone left these books at my store. It had a piece of notebook paper in it that said to bring them here."

Officer Jenny grabbed the books and smiled.  
"Well I'll be..."

An Arcanine walked out of the museum. It was wearing an odd hat that was shaped like a V and a badge pinned to her fur.

"What's up with that Arcanine?" The scrawny man whispered.

"That's one of those V-corp pokemon," the bald man replied.

"V-corp?"

"I don't know much. All I know is someone high in the ranks made an organization run by pokemon. They specialize in wild pokemon crimes because they can communicate with the suspects."

The Arcanine walked over to a Golduck, who was also wearing the odd hat and a badge.

"Well? What did you find?" Golduck asked her as he took a sip of his coffee.

"A cranky Litwick broke in and stole some books. It's a pretty odd case if you ask me," she replied.

Golduck spit his coffee out.  
"Whoa whoa whoa, did you say a cranky Litwick?"

"Uh, yeah. Why?"

Golduck pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number as quickly as he could.  
"Hello? This is officer Quackers. I need to speak with the chief right now. He's busy? Tell him I found Litwick. He wants to meet me in person? Excellent, I'll be there soon."

Officer Quackers closed his phone and smiled. After all those years he finally found him.

"Things are going to get interesting around here," he told Arcanine as he took another swig of his coffee.

"Very interesting indeed."


	6. Chapter 6: The Clefairy Mafia

**Chapter 6: The Clefairy Mafia**

"So why are we going to ?" Pokey asked.

"Apparently, I come from the Unova, right?" Mallow replied while trying his best to schlomp up the ridged path to the mountain. Not as easy as it sounds. The path to was full of rocks, hills, bumps, and cracks to trip over, which Mallow constantly did. This made him not a very happy pokemon.

Then again, Mallow is never happy.

"We're headed to VermillionCity. It said in the atlas that it's Kanto's leading port city. There we will find a ship that goes across the world, and then ride it back to the Unova. If I'm going to get any answers, my best bet right now is there."

"Do you mean the S. ?"

"The what?"

"It's a boat that travels around the world. It only stops in Kanto once a year."

"When is the boat going to be here?"

"3 days."

Mallow stopped in his ridged tracks.  
"3 days? How are we going to make it to VermillionCity in 3 days?"

Pokey shrugged. And Mallow sighed.

"Well I guess we better pick up the pace then," Mallow grumbled.

"How much farther do you think it is until we get to ?"

"If yer looking fer , it's not far from here," A musty voice said from somewhere.

"Who said that?" Pokey asked spinning around.

"Oh Arceus..." Mallow groaned as he face palmed.

"I did."

An old Raticate stepped out of what appeared to be nowhere. He had that same musty smell, scars, dirty fur, and chewed up cane.

"Do you know this guy?" Pokey whispered to Mallow.

"No. Yes. I don't know. He just showed up by the forest one time."

" is a dangerous place." The musty Raticate said now circling around the two.

"And let me guess, a lot of go in, but very few come out, right?" Mallow assumed.

"You are correct, young marshmallow."

"Can we go now? Or do you actually have a point to get to?" Mallow hurried.

"You've been warned," the Raticate hissed as he limped away.

"And now he's gone," Mallow predicted.

Pokey turned around, and sure enough Raticate had vanished.

"What was up with that?" Pokey asked, very confused.

"I don't know, maybe he escaped from a mental hospital or something," Mallow continued on, "Let's keep going, I think I can see the Mountain top."

It didn't take that long to arrive at the mountain. was just like any other mountain. Tall, steep, and full of Zubats. The sides were way too slanted and jagged, making it impossible to climb.

"So this is ..." Mallow whistled.

Pokey got in Mallow's face.  
"OK Mallow, listen up. This is going to be our most epic part of our journey yet! There are twists, turns, enemies, floors, and challenges the likes of which we've never seen before! I hope you're ready, because legends will tell of our journey of this day! THIS DAY WILL BE-"

"Why don't we just go over it?"

"...what?"

"Why don't you just fly us over it? It won't take long with your speed."

"Oh...well...I guess you have a point..."

Pokey let out a defeated sigh and grabbed Mallow. With his adventurous dream crushed, Pokey buzzed quickly up the side of the mountain.

There was an awkward silence for awhile.

"Mallow, I was wondering," Pokey spoke up, "Why do you think your memory was erased?"

Mallow paused for second to think about it.  
"Well, the way I see it there are 3 possibilities why someone would erase my memory. 1) I knew something someone didn't want me to know. 2) They knew something that they didn't want me to know. Or 3) I knew something they didn't want someone else to know."

"Yes but, what if someone didn't erase your memory?" Pokey asked.

"Considering I don't even know how old I am, I'm pretty sure my memory was erased." Mallow replied, rolling his eyes.

"That's not what I meant! I meant what if you just hit your head really hard and got amnesia? How do you know someone erased it?"

"That would be a possibility, except I didn't wake up with a headache and there was no bump on my head. I was sleeping. Someone put me under that stupid tree for a reason."

"OK...then what if you just have long-term memory loss?"

"If I had long-term memory loss, I would've forgotten about that stupid tree by now, don't you think?"

"I guess you're right..."

Mallow looked down at the mountain.  
_What an ugly piece of crap_ he thought.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. He was having another spark. Just like before, he learned a new move: Fire Spin. But he also forgot a move as well. Then his eyes faded back to normal.

"Man, I hate that!" He whined, as he rubbed his gooey head.

"Did you just have a spark? What move did you learn?" Pokey asked excitedly.

"Fire Spin."

"Ooh! Sounds cool!"

"This time was weird. I also forgot Astonish."

"What's so weird about that? You can only have 4 moves, so you had to forget one."

"The problem is, usually you get to choose what move to forget. This time I just forgot Astonish without a choice."

"So...what does that mean?"

"It means, I'm remembering moves in the order I previously learned them."

"So you have no control over what moves you know?"

"Not true. My theory is I'll stop having these annoying sparks when I learn all the moves I knew before my memory was erased. This will also give me a hint on what level I was."

"Do you want to know my level?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't give a crap about you."

Pokey laughed.  
"Fair enough."

20 minutes passed. They were getting closer to the mountaintop, but they still had ways to go.

"So..." Pokey finally spoke up, "Do you want to play I Spy?"

"What the hell is I Spy?" Mallow asked.

"It's a fun game where someone sees something and the other person tries to guess what it is!"

"That sounds retarded."

"I'll go first. I spy with my little eye...something...big!"

Mallow face palmed.  
"...Is it a mountain?"

"Yes! See? I told you this was fun!"

Mallow groaned. He was starting to question why he was traveling with Pokey in the first place.

Suddenly, he saw something coming from the mountain. It looked like a bunch of rainbow dots. The dots were flying towards them at blinding speeds.

"I spy with my one showing eye, something headed straight for us!" Mallow cried.

"Is it that cloud over there?"

"GET US OUT OF HERE, YOU IDIOT!"

Pokey swerved to his right, narrowly dodging the rainbow dots. They didn't look like dots up close. It almost looked like they were leaves.

"Missed me!" Pokey gloated.

The "leaves" suddenly changed path, and headed right back at Pokey.

"What the hell are those things?" Mallow gasped.

Pokey buzzed away as fast as he could, trying to get away from the "leaves". He did somersaults, u-turns, barrel rolls, anything he could do to lose the "leaves". But the "leaves" stayed on him, following his every move.

"I can't shake them!" Pokey exclaimed.

"They must be homing onto us somehow." Mallow explained.

He looked ahead and saw another pack of "leaves" heading for them from the front.

"Pokey, look out!" He shouted.

It was too late. They were sandwiched by the "leaves" and had no where to escape. The "leaves" crashed into the two and cut them like razors. They were sliced and diced over and over. The assault finally stopped. Mallow checked himself out. He had scratches all over his body, but he didn't look too bad.

"Hey, we're OK! That wasn't so bad-" Mallow looked up at Pokey in horror.

Pokey had gashes and cuts everywhere. He looked like he just came out of a blender. Pokey was hunched over Mallow, protecting him from most of the attack.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Mallow scolded, "You're the only one of us that can fly! Why would you protect me?"

"I guess I'm just an idiot," Pokey smiled.

"I know! Next time you feel like being honorable, do it when we don't need to fly over a mountain."

Suddenly, one "leaf" came out of nowhere, slicing right into Pokey's wings.

"AAAAGGGHHH!" Pokey cried out in pain.

His wings stopped flying instantly, and the two plummeted towards the mountain.

"My wings are damaged! We're going to crash!" Pokey shrieked.

As Pokey predicted, the two crashed into the mountain.

Emphasis on the word: into.

(0++0)

They burst into the side of the mountain and crashed inside a large cave in the middle of . They skidded across the floor, grinding to a stop in a massive room.

Mallow and Pokey both wobbled their best onto their feet.

"Where are we?" Mallow groaned as he spit grass out of his mouth.

Wait..._grass_?

Mallow took a closer look around the room. It was almost like a field. The floor was covered in grass. In the corner of the room, there was a patch of flowers that grew in a circular pattern around a hole in the ceiling. On the other far side of the room, there was a large pile of TMs.

A bunch of pink pokemon circled around Mallow and Pokey. They all wore odd looking glasses. They threw a hand in the air, and almost like magic, a group of the "leaves" from earlier floated above each of their heads.

Mallow and Pokey readied a fighting stance.

"I wouldn't do that if were you," said a smug voice.

2 of the pink pokemon parted from the circle. A larger pink pokemon stepped in. He was wearing a striped business suit with a rose in his shirt pocket.

"Make one attack, and you'll be more chopped up than Sprint's phone service," he warned, "What business do you have here?"

Mallow looked over at Pokey expecting him to talk for them. Pokey didn't look like himself. His eyes were wide with pure terror and were glued onto the pink guy in the business suit. Mallow grew a confused look and turned back to pink suit guy.

"We're just passing over the mountain," Mallow responded, "Is that a crime now?"

"Over? No one ever goes over the mountain," pink suit guy snapped.

"Seriously? Am I the only one to think about going over? Is everyone in this region an idiot?"

Pink suit guy turned to Pokey.

"What's up with your friend?" He asked Mallow.

"Sorry, your amazing fashion sense has left him speechless," Mallow replied sarcastically, "Now who are you? And what is this place?"

Pink suit guy smiled.

"My name is Dice, and I'm a Clefable. These are my Clefairy's. You are in a hidden place called Mt. Moon Square."

Pokey snaps out of his terrified state and turns to Mallow.  
"Don't you know who these people are? They call themselves the Clefairy Mafia. They are the most dangerous organization in the world!"

"Mafia?" Mallow says pretending to be impressed, "For top rank criminals, you sure have a bad hiding spot."

Dice scowls at Mallow.  
"Let me explain the situation you're in," Dice smirks, "My Clefairys are all equipped with an item called Choice Specs. Choice Specs greatly increases their special attack, but makes them only able to use one move. The good thing is my Clefairys only know one move: Magical Leaf. Magical Leaf is an attack that never misses."

"I get it," Mallow interrupts, "By using Choice Specs, the Clefairys all have a really powerful move, and it can't miss!"

Dice nods.  
"Bingo."

Mallow glances over at the pile of TMs.  
"So what are you planning to do with all those?"

Dice chuckled.  
"Let me tell you a little story."

"Oh boy, do we get cookies and milk, too?" Mallow asked sarcastically.

The Clefairys arched their arms back preparing to use Magical Leaf. They were not too happy the way Mallow spoke to their boss. Dice shook his head, and the Clefairys put their arms back.  
"For many generations, I've been the lead export in illegal potions. All the paperwork, buyers, cover ID's, storage units, proper training, bribing, and *cough* removing unwanted trouble *cough* it was all so much trouble! I knew there had to be some better way to earn a lot of money fast. Then I got the most brilliant idea. The pile of TMs over there contains the move Selfdestruct. I hired a large number of mindless Golems who believe I'm giving them a nice home, and a steady job. What they don't know is, I'm going to teach them Selfdestruct and hold important buildings and landmarks hostage. It's so simple! I threaten a building and ask for some money, the humans get scared and give me money. I'll become rich beyond my wildest dreams!"

"That's terrible!" Pokey cried.

"That's brilliant," Mallow admitted.

"Why don't I introduce to one of my Golems?" Dice smiles.

He stomps his foot on the ground and a large hole appears under Mallow and Pokey, causing them to fall through. They fell into another large room made out of pure stone. The room was a lot larger than square and was shaped almost like a giant dome. The two pokemon land face first on the cold, unforgiving rock floor with a loud thud.

"Ow..." Pokey groaned.

"I liked landing in the grass better," Mallow moaned.

"How do you like my basement?" Dice yelled from the hole, "Pretty roomy, huh? You probably knew this, but since you know my plan, I can't let you leave this place alive."

"Whatever! I'm not scared of you, you overstuffed Beanie Baby!" Mallow yelled back at him.

Dice face turned red with anger and then turned to a nearby Clefairy.  
"Finish them."

The Clefairy nodded, and ran off somewhere. Dice stomped his foot and the hole closed up.

Mallow and Pokey sat alone in the quiet, dome-basement (Or should I say...domesment), waiting for something to happen.

Pokey stood up and scratched his head.  
"So now what?"

"I have no idea..." Mallow responds.

A sudden loud, rumble filled the dome. Part of the wall peeled back, and a large boulder bowled through the opening and headed straight for Mallow and Pokey. The entrance closed back up after it.

"What the hell is that?" Pokey yelled.

"Who cares? Get out of the way!" Mallow commanded as he dashed out of the boulder's path.

Pokey tried to fly out of the way, but a pain shot through his wings. He cringed in pain, unable to move out of the way. The boulder smashed into Pokey with a powerful blow, sending him flying to the opposite side of the domesment. Pokey smacked face first into the curved wall and slid down to the floor.

The boulder stopped spinning. Arms, legs, and a head popped out of the large rock. It was a pokemon. Its arms were coated in claws and its mouth was lined with jagged teeth.

"So that's a Golem," Mallow whistled.

The lumbering beast turned to face Mallow with a hungry look in his eyes.

"I don't suppose you want to just talk, do you?" Mallow asked.

Golem smiled and yelled:  
"HURR DURR DURR HURR DURR!"

_Dice wasn't kidding when he said mindless,_ Mallow thought.

Golem stomped into a sumo-looking stance. It roared, and punched it's arms in front of it. All of a sudden, dozens of large, jagged stones burst from the wall behind it as if reacting to it's bad sumo impression.

Mallow rolled out of the way of the sharp rocks. They kept flying and smashed into the wall, making a large dust cloud and quite a dent in the wall.  
Golem growled, and turned back to Mallow.

Mallow reacted quickly, he sucked in air as if preparing for Ember, but instead of one small burning flame, five burning flames shot out of his mouth and landed around Golem's feet. The fireballs on the ground expanded, and a line of fire shot out from the spot twisting around Golem. The lines spiraled upward, trapping it in a burning pillar, or better known as Fire Spin.

Mallow quickly schlomped over to where Pokey lied.

"Nice one, Mallow," Pokey congratulated, "Now Golem is trapped!"

"Actually, we're still in trouble," Mallow admitted, "With a rock hide like that, it won't be long before it realizes it can Rollout out of there. What happened earlier? Why didn't you dodge?"

Pokey shrugged.  
"My wings are still broken. It hurts to fly."

"You big baby, they're not broken. They're just dislocated. I saw the leaf hit you in the base of your wings. Let me fix it."

Mallow grabbed his wings and yanked them back and forth like some sort of helicopter controls.

"Ow! OW! OOOWWW!" Pokey cried as he listened to something in his back make snapping noises.

Mallow gave them one final yank, and the pain vanished instantly.

"Whoa! The pain's gone! How did you do that?"

"Don't thank me just yet. I shifted them back into place, but not permanently. It should last you through this battle, but you still need to get to a pokemon center."

Pokey buzzed his wings and began floating off the ground.  
"That's amazing! How did you know how to-"

The room shook with a large rumble, and Golem bowled out of the Fire Spin like it was nothing.

"He's using Rollout again!" Pokey shouted as he actually flew out of the way this time.

Mallow did the same, and watched as Golem rolled along the spherical walls and circled all the way across the room. It rolled back onto the floor, and rumbled its way straight towards Pokey again.

He made a swift dodge again, but Golem came a lot closer than before. Golem rolled onto the wall, and up the ceiling again to repeat the process.

"Pokey! You have to stop it from rolling!" Mallow shouted at him, "Otherwise, this could go on forever!"

Pokey saluted him.  
"I'm on it!"

Pokey used Double Team, creating 3 illusions of himself. The group of Pokeys buzzed after the rolling boulder in fast pursuit. The group pointed their hand-drills at the boulder.

"String Shot!" They all yelled in unison.

Gooey strands shout out of their hand-drills like giant cans of silly string, grappling Golem and stopping it in its tracks. They grabbed the strings and barely managed to lift the heavy monster off the wall, and threw it on the ground with a loud crash. Its heavy body made a huge dent in the floor.

Golem popped out of its shell with hate for Pokey in its eyes. Golem went to his sumo stance, and shot dozens of jagged rocks at the Pokeys. The original flew away, but the rest were destroyed.

"What is that move?" Mallow asked Pokey.

"It's called Stone Edge," Pokey replied, "It's not the most accurate move, but it packs quite a punch."

Golem roared as he rolled back into a boulder and started his rolling routine.

Pokey used Double Team, and sent 7 Pokeys after him.

While the clones kept Golem busy, Pokey turned to Mallow in excitement.  
"So? What's the plan? You always have a plan."

"I'm working on it! Just keep Golem busy!" Mallow griped.

_This is not good,_ Mallow thought, _we're in a place of complete disadvantage. Not only does Golem have the type advantage over both of us, but it also has the terrain advantage. The dome shape is perfect for Rollout, and since the walls are made of rock, it can shoot Stone Edge from any angle! It's as if..._

Mallow smiled.  
"That's it!"

"Do you have a plan?" Pokey asked.

"You need to do exactly as I say, alright?"

Pokey gave him a salute to show he was listening.

"Ok first..." Mallow whispered the plan to Pokey.

What? You didn't expect me to tell you what the plan was, did you? That would be no fun.

Pokey created several more clones and headed to the center of the domesment floor. They used Twineedle and drilled a massive hole in the rock floor.

Mallow schlomped in front of the hole.

"Hey! Ugly!" Mallow shouted to Golem, "I hope your plan is to bore us to death, because it's working"

"HURR DURR!" Golem roared back from inside the rolling boulder.

"Bring it on, you giant cocoa pebble!" Mallow taunted, followed by a slap on his ghost-white ass.

Golem was rolling across the wall and immediately swerved to aim at Mallow. It rolled onto the floor, and charged at Mallow faster than ever. It raced in, and was just about to hit him.

Then it plunked in the hole Pokey made like a golf ball. No matter how much Golem rolled, as long as it was a boulder, it wasn't going anywhere.

"Pokey now!" Mallow yelled.

On queue, Pokey flew in and grabbed Mallow. He buzzed up to the very center of the domesment ceiling.

Golem popped out of it's shell, and glared up at the two. It stomped into a sumo stance, and shot a Stone Edge straight up at them.

Pokey barely buzzed out of the way of the rock bullets. The Stone Edge crashed through the ceiling and burst through Mt. Moon Square's floor.

Pokey and Mallow quickly went though the ceiling hole. Golem stood in the floor hole, trying to process what just happened. In it's confusion, a swarm of Pokey clones buzzed in and used String Shot on Golem. They pulled upwards, causing a sling shot effect on Golem shooting it up through the ceiling hole onto Mt. Moon Square.

Dice watched in disbelief as Mallow, Pokey, and now Golem shot through his floor.

"What the hell is going on?" Dice shouted.

Pokey and Mallow floated out of the way as Golem was flung into the TMs. Golem got out of the TMs with a look of pure anger on its face. It rolled into a boulder, preparing the finishing move.

"That's your sign, Pokey. Finish it!" Mallow commanded the real Pokey.

Pokey nodded and flew him and Mallow out of the hole they had originally made when they crashed into Mt. Moon Square.

Dice turned red with rage.  
"What are you idiots waiting for? STOP THEM!"

The Clefairys all readied their Magical Leaves, but suddenly a Pokey clone popped out of the floor hole leading to the domesment.

"There are 2 of him?" Dice gasped.

The clone flew over to Golem, who was still charging the Rollout. The clone grabbed a nearby TM and slapped it on the spinning boulder.

"Forget Rollout!" The clone ordered.

3, 2, 1...Poof!

Golem forgot Rollout! And...

Dice's face fell instantly.  
"Oh no...EVERYONE RUN!"

But it was too late. Golem was in the middle of Rollout and when it was replaced with Selfdestruct, it was forced to use it.

In a matter of seconds, Golem exploded. The mountain blew apart. The entire middle was blown away, and the top fell on the only part of the bottom that was still standing. Rocks and debris flew everywhere as the area around it was blanketed in a thick layer of dirt and gravel.

Mallow and Pokey flew away just in time to avoid any injury from the mountain demolition. The two were coated in dirt and smoke from the explosion, but otherwise they were perfectly fine.

Pokey smiled and looked down at Mallow.  
"I don't know how you did it, but you just escaped from the Clefairy Mafia! Achievement get!"

"It was easier than it looked," Mallow explained, "I noticed that Golem used a pattern of attack. Rollout, and then Stone Edge. I forced it into a situation where it would use Stone Edge against the center ceiling, which is the weakest part of any dome shaped room."

"And then when he used Rollout after Stone Edge, so you had me replace it with Selfdestruct! That's amazing!" Pokey interrupted.

Pokey turned to see the mountain, and his jaw dropped.  
"Holy crap! The whole thing is destroyed!"

Mallow shrugged.  
"It happens."

"We just destroyed a major landscape! All the pokemon and people inside...th-this is awful!"

"They knew what they were getting into."

"Shouldn't we go back and help them?"

"The problem with that is I don't give a crap about them. What we need to do now is get your wings to a hospital before they start hurting again."

Pokey sighed. Mallow was right. And a jerk. But more importantly, he was right.

There was an awkward silence for awhile.

Pokey looked down at Mallow.  
"So...want to play I Spy?" Pokey asked.

Mallow groaned. He almost wished he left Pokey in the explosion.

Mallow didn't feel very accomplished. Sure he escaped from the Clefairy Mafia, but if the organization is as big as he was told, there was a very good chance there is a lot more pokemon working for Dice. He was sure he hasn't seen the last of the Clefairy Mafia.

Well, at least they're not his problem now. He hoped in his tiny black heart that CeruleanCity was going to be a peaceful and quiet town. After all he's been through, he deserves a break.

Right?


	7. Chapter 7: Trainer Pains

**Chapter 7: Trainer Pains**

"Come on, Pokey! For a speedy pokemon, you sure walk as slow as hell!" Mallow shouted behind him.

"Sorry, Mallow. I'm not that fast without my wing power," Pokey admitted.

Mallow rolled his eyes.  
"Maybe next time you shouldn't get your wings dislocated, huh?"

Mallow and Pokey had just arrived in Cerulean City and were headed towards the pokemoncenter. Not as fast as Mallow would like, I might add. Pokey's temporary wing treatment had worn off and is now forced to walk around on his skimpy bug legs.

I suppose now is the part of the chapter where I describe what Cerulean City looks like. I suppose you expect me to tell you things like how big the city is and how it had 4 different exits. I could tell you that the west exit was the path from Mt. Moon. I'm able to say the north exit leads across a gentle river over a wooden bridge. I suppose I could also say the south exit leads to Vermillion City. And of course, I could always tell you the east exit leads to Rock Tunnel.

But I won't do that. Describing towns gets so boring after awhile.

The two pokemon finally reached the pokemoncenter and headed into the glass doors. Mallow schlomped up to a human nurse with ridiculous pink hair. The nurse took one look at them and pointed them towards a desk with a large pink pokemon behind it.

The pink pokemon gave them a polite bow.  
"Welcome to the pokemon center! I'm Chansey, and I run the pokemon service desk."

"So what? Do you want a medal or something?" Mallow sighed, "My friend here needs medical attention for his wings."

Chansey shook her head.  
"I'm sorry. If you haven't noticed we're pretty backed up right now."

Chansey nodded her head behind them, and the two turned around.

It was true, the hospital was packed. The human nurses rushed back and forth as they carried carts of pokeballs stuffed with injured pokemon being rushed into the back room. Trainers lined up behind the human service desk clutching their pokemon. Most of them were fainted, but some just had broken limbs. Even a lot of the humans looked pretty scraped up.

Chansey averted their attention back to her.  
"And if you haven't noticed, you also cut in line."

A mob of angry pokemon yelled from behind Mallow. All of them were beat up pretty bad, and covered in dirt.

"What happened here? Why are there so many injured people and pokemon?" Pokey asked.

"It was terrible! No one knows why, but Mt. Moon exploded! These are just the few that made it out of the mountain alive. There's probably still hundreds more buried under the rubble." Chansey said sadly.

Mallow gulped.  
"Oh my! Mt. Moon exploded? How terrible!" Mallow said as innocently as he could.

"So if you want medical treatment, get to the back of the line," Chansey commanded.

"But my friend needs medical treatment right now!" Mallow whined.

Chansey looked at Pokey and laughed.  
"It looks to me like he just has a dislocated wing. These pokemon have much more serious injuries and should be tended to first."

Mallow frowned and schlomped over to Pokey. He grabbed one of his wings.

"Ow! What are you doing?" Pokey asked.

Mallow tightened his grasp on the wing and gave it a massive yank. You could see the wing remove itself from Pokey's back. The poor wing barely hung on by a single strand of muscle fiber.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW WWW!" Pokey wailed.

The whole hospital turned to the sudden outburst. Chansey's jaw dropped and her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

Mallow turned to her and smiled.  
"Is that serious enough for you?"

Chansey rushed over to Pokey and called over several other Chanseys and a Nurse Joy.

"We need to get him into surgery, stat!" Nurse Joy ordered.

They dragged Pokey into the back room as quickly as they could. Mallow schlomped out of the hospital dodging the various scoldings and things being thrown at him from the pokemon that were waiting in line.

Mallow stepped outside and took a deep breath. Not because of the crisp afternoon air, but because of frustration. Now he has to wait for Pokey to get out of surgery, which could take up to 24 hours. And with the S. arriving in 3 days, that is a lot longer than it seems. It was still better than waiting in line. By the time they would've finally got in, the S. would have already sailed away.

"Whoa! What's that pokemon?" A sudden voice called out from behind him.

"Oh great, now what?" Mallow griped.

Mallow turned to see a 10 year old human boy run up to him. The boy wore a red hat with a white pokeball symbol on the front of it. His collared shirt was red with a white stripe down the middle. He had on basic blue jeans and a yellow backpack.

"I've never seen a pokemon like this before!" The boy spoke getting into Mallow's face.

Mallow backed up.  
"Would you mind not standing so close to me, fruit-cake?"

The boy reached in his pocket and pulled out a small, rectangular looking computer. He flipped the case open and a small screen lit up. He pointed it at Mallow and a picture of him appeared onto the screen.

"LITWICK, THE CANDLE POKEMON," An electronic voice said, "LITWICKS USE THEIR BRIGHT LIGHT TO GUIDE PEOPLE THROUGH DARK PLACES, BUT IN REALITY, IT IS JUST A TRICK TO DRAIN THEIR LIFE FORCE. LITWICK CAN BE FOUND IN THE UNOVA REGION."

"Well that would have been a lot more helpful to hear 2 chapters ago," Mallow grumbled.

"Wow! A Unova pokemon!" The boy smiled, "What a rare find!"

The boy crouched down so he could look at Mallow face-to-face.

Mallow backed up even further.  
"What's wrong with you? Don't you know anything about personal space?"

"Hello, Litwick! My name is Red." The boy cheerfully said.

Mallow broke out into laughter.  
"Red? RED? Your name is Red? BWAHAHA! What? Was your dad the CEO of freakin' Crayola or something?"

Red stood up with a twinkle in his eyes.  
"I'm going to catch this Litwick."

"Hahaha...heh...wait what?"

Red reached into his pocket and pulled out a pokeball. He pressed a button on the ball and it grew larger. He took a stance like a baseball pitcher and threw the pokeball into the air.

"Charmeleon, I choose you!" He yelled.

The pokeball opened in the air, and a red light flashed out. The strange light molded and twisted itself into an odd shape. All of a sudden, the mysterious glow flashed away, and in the spot stood a pokemon.

The pokemon looked like a crimson red dinosaur. It was about 3'07" and had a notch growing from the back of its head. He had large, sharp claws growing from his hands and feet. The most interesting feature was his long tail with a fire burning on the tip.

"Whoa! Like, check out the little candle dude!" Charmeleon said.

Mallow looked at Charmeleon. Then up at Red.  
"What the hell are you doing?"

"OK Charmeleon, let's start this battle off with a Slash!" Red ordered.

Charmeleon nodded and let out a loud roar. The claws on his hands grew 3x larger, and he made a mad dash at Mallow moving too fast to dodge. He made a massive swipe, and made a powerful cut right through Mallow's face.

Literally, right through his face.

Charmeleon, completely stunned, fell flat on his stomach. Mallow looked at the collapsed pokemon in complete disbelief.

He turned back to Red.  
"You can't be serious."

Red scratched his head.  
"Huh? Why didn't Slash work?"

"Normal type moves don't affect Ghost types, you Ding-Dong!" Mallow snapped.

Charmeleon got up and walked up behind Mallow.

"You'll have to, like, excuse Red, brah," Charmeleon said, "He's, like, new to this battling stuff."

"That explains a lot," Mallow mumbled.

"Well if Slash doesn't work, hit it with a Metal Claw Charmeleon!" Red instructed.

"Like, whatever you say trainer dude," Charmeleon replied.

In a split second, Charmeleon's claws were coated in a thick layer of Iron. Charmeleon made another dash at Mallow (which was quite impressive to run so fast with those heavy hands) but this time he stopped right in front of Mallow. Charmeleon then jumped 10ft straight up into the sky. He pointed his steel claws down at Mallow and let the gravity of his heavy weighing nails drag him towards Mallow at an alarming speed.

"Holy shit!" Mallow cried out.

Mallow barely managed to roll out of the way of Charmeleon's attack, and Charmeleon claws dug deep into the road with a loud crash.

But that wasn't going to stop him.

Charmeleon landed on his feet and twisted his body around, dislodging his hands from the concrete. But the weight of his claws kept him spinning in a wild circle and headed back for Mallow. Unable to dodge the twisted attack, Charmeleon's Metal Claw raked across Mallow with a powerful slash. Mallow was sent flying past Red and face planted onto the road.

"Yeah! That's the way, Charmeleon!" Red cheered.

Mallow got up and spit bits of gravel out of his mouth.  
_Dammit, this Charmeleon is a lot better than I expected_, he thought.

Suddenly, Mallow's eyes began to glow and he got a terrible migraine.

_Oh great! Memory spark time_, Mallow thought wearily.

This time, Mallow forgot Minimize and learned Confuse Ray. The headache disappeared and Mallow's eyes returned to their normal yellow selves.

"Aw man! I actually liked Minimize!" Mallow whined.

"OK, Charmeleon! Let's finish this battle with another Metal Claw!" Red ordered.

Charmeleon nodded and in a split second his claws were covered in another sheet of metal. He charged at Mallow at full force, not planning the stop and jump this time.

"I guess I'll just have to use this new move to my advantage," Mallow sighed.

Suddenly, 2 balls of light floated (stop laughing!) From Mallow's eyes and zoomed towards Charmeleon. The balls of light spun around Charmeleon for a couple of seconds then crashed into each other, creating a large ray the flashed onto Charmeleon.

Dazed and confused, he rubbed his eyes trying to get a better perspective on his sense of perspective. But in his confusion, Charmeleon made a left turn and slammed into a nearby house.

Red gasped.  
"What the-"

Mallow reacted quickly, and shot a Fire Spin at Charmeleon. The five balls of fire landed at his feet and spiraled upward, trapping him in a burning vortex.

Mallow laughed.  
"Huh, I guess this Confuse Ray isn't such a bad move after all."

Mallow then sucked air in, and used Smog. A large plume of poisonous gas shot out from his mouth and swallowed Charmeleon in a purple cloud. Charmeleon coughed and sputtered.

Normally, a fire type could easily break out of Fire Spin, but the toxic gas made him too weak to burst out. Charmeleon coughed and sputtered as his body slowly filled up with the poisonous fumes and was slowly being roasted.

It was quite amazing really. Mallow came up with this strategy only seconds after receiving his new move.

"There," Mallow panted, "That should take care of him."

Red saw Mallow sweat from exhaustion and smiled.  
"Now's my chance!"

Red pulled an empty pokeball out of his pocket and threw it as hard as he could at Mallow. The ball struck him smack on the head and knocked Mallow onto his back.

"What the hell, fruit-cake? What's your freakin' problem?" Mallow shouted angrily.

Suddenly, the pokeball opened up in the air. A large mass of red light flew out of the ball, just like with Charmeleon. Except this time, the red light seemed to grab Mallow and lock him into place.

Being a human, you probably have no idea what it's like to get sucked into a pokeball. Let me explain it to you the best I can: have you ever put your finger in that tube thing on a vacuum? It's kind of like that, and getting sat on by a fat kid. What a pokeball does is converts the matter of a pokemon into moldable red matter so they can fit a pokemon inside the ball, no matter what size. It doesn't exactly feel all that pleasant.

Mallow struggled to not be sucked in, but he was too weak ad his entire body was morphed into the red matter and was vacuumed into the pokeball.

Then everything went quiet.

And everything went pitch black.

(0++0)

Mallow dashed through a shaking room. A loud alarm was going off with a bright red light spinning around. He schlomped as fast as he could into a giant metal box. It almost looked like a tanning booth.

Mallow stood in the box for a second and turned around.

"YOU KNOW, YOU'RE AN ASS," an electronic voice said.

Mallow tried to reply, but a loud blast went off and the ceiling started to crumble down.

Then everything went dark.

Again.

(0++0)

"What the butt?" Mallow yelled as he sat up.

He just woke up from a dream. He was sweaty and his hands were shaking.

Mallow frowned.  
"Oh great, now I'm having dreams I don't know the meaning of and make no sense at all. Having amnesia sucks ass."

Mallow made a large stretch and looked around. He was sitting in a square room with pure white walls. He was lying down on a couch, one of the three that surrounded a glass table in the middle of the room. At the other end of the table was a massive flat screen TV that almost covered up the entire wall. There was a fridge in the corner and no doors or windows.

"Where exactly am I?" Mallow asked out loud.

Suddenly, the TV turned on, and it showed Charmeleon on the screen in a room identical to his.

"Like, what's up little candle bro?" Charmeleon greeted.

"Where the hell am I?" Mallow snapped back.

"You're totally in a pokeball, dude."

"This is what the inside of a pokeball looks like? I didn't really expect this."

"Dude, this stuff totally isn't, like, real or anything. It's just, like, a dream or something."

"A dream? What are you talking about?"

"Well a pokeball transmits these, like brainwaves or something that puts our brains in this totally awesome state of, like, subconscious. If you, like, go over to that fridge and, like, say what you want to eat, it will totally appear. It fills you up just as normal food does, but it's not real, or whatever. Do you feel me, bro?"

"So are the pokeballs sending out brainwaves so we can communicate like this on the TV?"

"You got it little dude. It's pretty sweet. You can look outside, or watch normal TV, or check the weather, or..."

"Wait...if I'm in a pokeball...does that mean?"

Charmeleon smiled and gave Mallow 2 thumbs up.  
"Welcome to team Red, little dude."

Mallow got up and frantically started pacing around the table.  
"Oh nononononononononono nono no NO! This can't be happening! This CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"

"You better believe it, dude."

_This is an absolute nightmare_, Mallow thought, _I'll never find out who I really am now! Not to mention I'll never make it to the S. in time! I'm forced to travel with Red forever! This is the absolute WORST possible thing that could possibly happen_.

Charmeleon tapped the screen.  
"It's not so bad, brah. You get used to Red after awhile."

Mallow turned to the TV.  
"Shut up! If you wouldn't have distracted and wore me out in the battle, I wouldn't even be in this mess!"

"Look, if you want to leave that bad, there's always a chance you might get, like, released."

Mallow stopped in his pacing tracks immediately.  
"Released? What are you talking about?"

"When a trainer, like, doesn't want a pokemon anymore, they can totally release them or whatever."

"So there is a way out after all? Excellent!"

"Don't get your hopes up, dude. Red trains all his pokemon with, like, love and compassion. I don't think he's ever released a pokemon yet."

"If that's the case, then in order to get on the S. in time, by the end of tomorrow..."

A diabolical grin slowly spread itself across Mallow's face.

"…I have to piss off Red to the point of releasing me."


	8. Chapter 8: Crossing the Line

**Chapter 8: Crossing the Line**

**Phase 1**

"So, like, how exactly are you going to piss off Red?" Charmeleon asked.

"That all depends," Mallow replied, "Where are we going today?"

Charmeleon paused and thought for a second.  
"We're probably, like, on our way back to the hotel."

"Hotel? Since when does Cerulean City have a hotel?"

"Everyone got tired of random kids camping on the road, so the built a totally rad new hotel. When we get there, Red was, like, talking about eating in the hotel restaurant then going swimming."

Mallow arched his head back and let out a loud laugh.

"That couldn't be more perfect!" Mallow chuckled.

"What are you talking about candle dude?"

"Just trust me. With a little Ember, some paper, Confuse Ray, Smog, some salt, and a glass of lemonade, I can bring Red down before the end of the day."

Charmeleon scratched his head.  
"With some...paper...and salt? Whu-huh?"

"You'll see," Mallow promised.

Suddenly, the entire room started to fade. Almost as if the room was melting away. A large vacuum sound was heard, and everything went red.

(0++0)

When Mallow came to, he was standing in a hotel lobby. And I mean a FANCY hotel lobby. I'm talking chandeliers on the ceiling with naked angel baby statues everywhere fancy.

"Hello again, Litwick!" Red said behind him.

Mallow turned around and looked up at the happy trainer.  
"What do you want now, fruit-cake?"

"Look, I know you probably don't want to be my pokemon, and adapting to a new life can be tough," Red admitted, "So I thought it would be nice to spend time with you outside your pokeball for the day."

"I think it would be nice to spend time with a foot up your ass," Mallow grumbled.

"What do you say, Litwick? Could you at least give me a chance?"

"I hate your entire existence and your face looks like barf."

"I knew you'd understand. Follow me, Litwick," Red said as he walked down the hall.

"Life would be so simpler if humans could understand pokemon," Mallow moaned as he followed.

At the end of the fancy hallway, Mallow and Red arrived at a large room. If you thought the lobby was fancy, this restaurant takes the fancy cake. This was one of those restaurants that were so fancy; the food didn't even cover the whole plate. Every table was blanketed with a beautiful tablecloth and the chairs looked almost like thrones. The waiters never smiled, and a live Kricketune and Kricketot band was playing. It was kind of weird seeing them in the Kanto region, but whatever.

"Do you have a reservation, sir?" A snuffy waiter asked.

Red nodded.  
"Yes, the name's Red."

The waiter skimmed through a large book and found his name.  
"Right this way, sir"

He grabbed some menus and walked towards a table. The waiter pulled out some chairs on a small, but still fancy, table. Mallow sat down and Red followed after putting his backpack on the edge of the chair.

"What can I get you this fine evening?"

"Uuuuhhhh...I'll take the soup of the day please," Red requested, "What would you like Litwick?"

Mallow put on his most innocent face and pointed to the soup of the day as well.

"Oh no Litwick, that's human food. Pokemon food is on the next page," Red laughed.

Mallow shook his head and pointed angrily at the soup.

Red sighed.  
"2 soups please."

The waiter bowed to them.  
"Your meal will be out momentarily."

40 minutes passed as Mallow ignored Red's many attempts at trying to talk to him. The waiter came back with the soups. Red thanked him for the meal, and the waiter walked away.

"Alright! Let's dig in!" Red said happily as he grabbed one of the many spoons.

Mallow smiled. Now was his chance. Mallow quickly used Confuse Ray as the 2 lights shot out for his eyes and flashed onto Red.

"AAAUUGGHH!" Red cried, "Litwick? What's your problem?"

He blinked trying to focus on his soup, but the confuse ray made his perspective was way off as he repeatedly stabbed the table and his leg with the spoon.

Red rubbed his eyes trying to get his vision back to normal. Meanwhile, Mallow jumped onto the table and grabbed the salt container. He screwed off the lid and dumped the whole container of salt into Red's soup. Mallow grabbed his spoon and mixed the salt in until you could not tell it was there. He then quickly jumped back into his seat and pretended to be eating his own soup.

Red shook his head as he got out of his confusion. He turned back to see Mallow happily enjoying his soup.

"Nice try Litwick. But cheap tricks like that aren't going to make me release you," Red said angrily.

Mallow bowed apologetically, and Red took a sip of his soup. He spit it out all over the floor the second the spoon touched his tongue.

"Bleck! This soup is WAY to salty! This tastes terrible!" Red yelled.

The waiter from earlier walked over to see what all the commotion was.  
"Is something wrong?"

"Yes there is something wrong. This is probably the worst soup I've ever tasted!" Red griped, "I want to talk with your chef!"

The waiter nodded, and hurried to the kitchen.

"Geez. Can you believe this place?" Red said shaking his head.

"Some people just have no class," Mallow said mockingly.

The waiter returned with a large man in a tall chef's hat and an apron stained with spices and spilled oils. This man looked like he worked out every second of the day and ate little kid's hopes and dreams for breakfast he was so tough.

"Who doesn't like my masterpiece soup?" The chef boomed.

"I don't! You know, this soup is just-"  
Red paused when he turned to see the large angry man.

"Just what? What's your beef with my soup, huh?" The chef glared.

While everyone was distracted, Mallow quickly dived under the table and dashed under Red's chair. Mallow first stealthily grabbed Red's wallet and then lifted the front end of his chair with all his might. Red flailed his arms as his chair began to topple backwards. Mallow let the gravity of the chair do the rest of the work as Red fell onto the floor with a loud crash. Every person in the restaurant turned to the loud noise and the he chef and waiter's jaw dropped in surprise.

Mallow took this opportunity of distraction to jump back on the table and switch Red's soup with his own.

The chef angrily grabbed Red by the collar of his shirt and picked him up to eye level.  
"Is this some kind of joke to you?"

Red put his hands up and shook his head.  
"N-no! It's just the soup's way too salty for my taste!"

The chef threw Red down angrily and stomped over to the soup. He took a little sip and smacked his lips. He angrily picked Red back up again.

"Too salty? TOO SALTY? My soup tastes perfect! Are you trying to scam me out of a meal?" The chef roared.

"What? No!" Red panicked.

The chef threw Red down and held out his hand.  
"Then pay me for my hard work before I knock your lights out!"

Red nodded and dug his hand into his pocket. A look of terror spread across his face when he couldn't find it. Red looked around frantically in a panic, then he saw Mallow.

Mallow smiled as he held up Red's wallet. He pulled Red's Trainer Card out, and then Mallow used Ember. A small flame shot out of his mouth and burned the wallet to ash. Red watched in horror as the remnants of his money drifted onto the carpeted floor.

"Well! Where's my money?" The chef boomed.

Red sighed and looked up at the chef in terror.  
"It's uh...I don't have it."

The chef picked Red up again.  
"You come into MY restaurant, eat MY soup, insult MY cooking, and you don't have the money to pay me for all this nonsense!"

The chef pulled Red by the back of his neck and dragged him towards the kitchen.  
"I'm going to have to teach a lesson about respect," he said angrily, already thinking of ways to beat Red.

"No wait! Please!" Red cried as he was helplessly dragged away.

He looked over at the table just in time to see Mallow wave him away with a smile.

"LITWICK!" Red cried in anger before getting dragged into the kitchen.

Mallow took a napkin and wiped his mouth. He threw down enough cash to cover the meal on the table he took from Red's wallet before burning it. Red was the only one he wanted to piss off, and the soup was too good not to pay for.

Mallow hopped down from his seat and schlomped over to Red's backpack. He pulled out a couple pieces of paper from an important looking notebook and a marker.

_This is going to be easier than I planned_, Mallow thought happily as he schlomped towards the exit.

Next stop: Red's room.

**Phase 2**

Mallow schlomped back into the lobby. He glanced around until he found the check-in desk. Mallow schlomped up to the long, tall, wooden desk.

"Hey! Heeeey!" Mallow called up to anyone who could hear him.

A woman with strange, curly orange hair leaned her head over the counter and looked down at Mallow.  
"Uh...can I help you?"

Mallow took one of the several pieces of paper he had with him and started drawing on it with a marker. He drew a door with question marks instead of a room number above it. He then tossed up the paper with Red's Trainer Card he took earlier.

The woman studied the paper for a minute then looked back down at Mallow.  
"Do you want this boy's room number?" She asked while pointing to the card.

Mallow nodded happily. He was thankful for talking with someone smart for a change.

The woman typed something into a computer, and then turned back to Mallow.  
"Are you one of his pokemon? Do you have a key to his room?"

Mallow shook his head no.

"Here let me get you one."

The woman reached behind her took a key from the large shelf behind her and handed it to him along with Red's Trainer Card.  
"It is room 512. Have a nice day."

Mallow gladly took the key and headed to the elevator. That woman was very helpful. He had to remember to send her some berries or something.

Mallow climbed into a glass elevator with green, plushy carpeting. He hopped up and pressed the 5th floor button. As the elevator door closed, Mallow saw an old man hobble over to the elevator.

"Wait!" He cried, "Hold the door!"

Mallow jumped up to press a button.

The button that closes the door to be exact.

As the door shut on the helpless old man's face, Mallow shot up to his destination. A delightful beep emitted from the elevator as Mallow reached the 5th floor.

Mallow hopped out and hurried down the marble hallways. It didn't take him long to find room 512. Mallow inserted the key, and unlocked the room.

It was a nice room. There was a large TV and very nice furniture in the center with a large table. It was almost like the dream room inside the pokeball. The room split into two separate rooms. One led to a beautiful bedroom with a massive king size bed draped with deluxe curtains and an excellent window view. The other led to a throne fit for royalty.

And by throne I mean toilet.

Mallow headed over to the couch and got to work. He first headed into the "throne room" and got a couple sheets of toilet paper. He took the pieces of TP and placed 2 sheets on each piece of paper he had left. He tore the TP up into little shreds and mashed them up the best he could. Carefully, he scooted them into neat little piles at the edges of each sheet of paper. He rolled up each paper and made nice little tubes full of ground up toilet paper.

Mallow then used Ember to burn a little of the edge off each sheet, and placed a couple on the couches and one on top of the bed's giant cloud pillows.

Mallow schlomped over to the phone and dialed Room Service.

"THANK YOU FOR CALLING ROOM SERVICE. FOR HUMAN SERVICE, PRESS 1. FOR POKEMON SERVICE, PRESS 3."

Mallow pressed 3 obviously.

"Can I help you?" A voice said over the phone.

"Yes, Can I have some more towels and a glass of lemonade sent to room 511 please?" Mallow asked.

"Sure thing. I'll send it right up." The voice said and then hung up.

Mallow quickly headed back into the TV room and inhaled some air. He then let out a massive Smog and coated the room in a toxic gas. Mallow rushed outside and removed the key, trying to get as little Smog out as possible.

A couple minutes passed and a cleaning lady with a cart full of towels and a glass of lemonade came up the elevator. She walked over to room 511 and was about to unlock the door when a foul stench hit her nose.

"What is that?" She sputtered.

That's when she noticed a purple smoke spilling out from Red's room. She placed a towel over her mouth and went in to investigate.

"What the hell? Who would do this here?" She cried from in the room struggling to open the windows.

Mallow grabbed the lemonade off the cart and headed back to the elevator.

He had to wait for the hotel people to figure out what is going on in Red's room, so for now he needed to get back to the lobby.

It was time to wrap things up.

**Phase 3**

Back at the lobby, Red limped away from the restaurant. He had scrapes and bruise from head to toe. He had some napkins stuffed up his nose to stop the bleeding he had from getting hit in the face with a frying pan.

"I'm never taking Litwick to a restaurant ever again..." Red moaned.

Where did Mallow go anyway?

Red looked around the lobby but couldn't see Mallow anywhere. As if on queue, Mallow stepped off the elevator sipping the lemonade.

"There you are! What is wrong with you?" Red yelled as he stomped over to him, "And where did you get lemonade?"

Mallow put on his best sad face and handed Red back his Trainer Card.

Red sighed as he took back his card.  
"Look, I'm trying to be nice to you. Let's just go to the pool and try to put this whole mess behind us, alright?"

Mallow nodded and put on a fake smile.  
"Whatever floats your root-beer."

"Follow me." Red smiled as he walked away.

"This guy sure forgives quickly," Mallow admitted to himself.

He really hoped Red wasn't too forgiving. It might ruin the whole plan. He looked over at the desk he was at earlier. The lady with the orange hair wasn't there anymore. It was odd, but Mallow had no time to think of that right now. He quickly followed behind Red.

(0++0)

"I hate locker rooms," Mallow grumbled, "They're dark. They're boring. They're gross. And they all smell like yogurt."

Red had led him to the locker room so he can change into his swimming trunks.

"This is going to be great. I haven't gone swimming in forever." Red said excitedly.

"Yeah, I can't wait to submerge myself in a hole full of 5 year old pee," Mallow said sarcastically.

"Don't be so mellow, Litwick. They have a hot tub for fire types to lie in. Now come on! Let's go!"

Red closed his locker and placed a lock on it. He grabbed a towel and skipped out the door. Mallow on the other hand had work to do.

Mallow hopped up to Red's locker a typed in the combination. He memorized it when Red locked it earlier. Mallow reached in and took out all his stuff and locked it back up.

Mallow tied Red's pants, shirt, and backpack together and looked around for a window. Every locker room has a window that you can't see through and is 2 inches wide. It is almost always cracked open slightly for fresh air. Mallow found it hiding behind a set of lockers and tossed the backpack out the window. The clothing-rope dangled out the window and stayed there thanks to the weight of the backpack.

Mallow grabbed the glass of lemonade from earlier and followed Red to the pool.

The pool was very large. It stretched all the way across the blue tiled room with a massive diving board at the incredibly deep end. In the corner there was a pretty big hot tub, but not nearly as big as the pool. There were plastic chairs aligned around the pool and Red was setting his towel down on one of them. There were some creepy old guys soaking in the hot tub and a bunch of girls giggled in the pool as they splashed each other.

Mallow schlomped over to Red's chair and hopped on it.

Red turned to Mallow.  
"OK Litwick. Remember: this is your last chance to be good. Don't cause any problems, alright?"

Mallow laughed.  
"Sorry, but 'problems' might have been my middle name."

Mallow took the glass of lemonade and tossed it all over Red's swimming trunks.

"Litwick! What the heck?" Red cried.

He yelled loudly enough to get everyone's attention. The girls giggled and swam away and the creepy old guys made disgusting faces as everyone saw yellow liquid run down Red's legs.

Red let out an angry cry, grabbed his towel, and dashed back into the locker room. He threw off his trunks in anger and tossed his towel angrily at the wall. Mallow followed behind closely, leaving the glass randomly on the floor for the janitors to find.

"I hope you're happy. This whole day was just ruined thanks to you," Red grumbled as he unlocked his locker.

"Why yes, I am very happy," Mallow giggled.

Red opened his locker and stood there stunned. His backpack was gone! It had all the rest of his clothes in there.

Mallow saw his chance and quickly used Confuse Ray again on Red. The lights flashed onto him and made him completely dizzy and disoriented.

"Aaahhh! Why?" Red cried as he stumbled around the locker room.

Mallow dashed over and swiped Red's swimming trunks and towel. He schlomped over to the rope of clothing he made earlier and climbed up and out the window. He was lucky he was so small; otherwise he would have NEVER fit through that tight spot.

Red blinked his eyes as he slowly got his perspective back.  
"Litwick? Where did you go?"

"Over here!" Mallow called from the window.

Red turned and saw in amazement as Mallow shut the window after taking the last of his clothes outside. He was now out of the hotel.

"Arceusdammit! I'm going to kill that little bastard!" Red roared as he charged out of the locker room.

It wasn't like him to get so angry. I guess Mallow just brings out the worst in people.

As Red ran through the corridors, a woman screamed in horror as he passed her. Red looked at himself and just remembered: he was butt-naked.

I now know why people call him Red. He blushed more crimson than Charmeleon. He put his hands over his...uh..."pokeflute" and hurried as fast as he could out of the hotel. Of course, startling every person along the way.

Red burst through the door and looked around frantically for Mallow. People on the streets pointed and shouted at the naked trainer. Parents covered their children's eyes and several people on bikes crashed into each other they were so stunned.

Red raced around the side of the building until finding Mallow happily waiting for him in the alleyway.

As soon as Mallow saw Red, he tossed all of Red's clothes into a pile next to him. Red knew what he was going to do and started running at the pile.

"No! Don't-" Red pleaded.

But it was too late. Mallow used Ember on the clothes and burned them to a smoldering pile of ash.

Red stood there speechless. He could not believe what Mallow just did.

"That was my...that was...my clothes..." Red sputtered as tears swelled up in his eyes.

"Would you care to explain to me why a beat-up kid is running around my streets butt-naked?" A voice said from behind Red.

Red slowly turned around to see a policewoman standing behind him.

Mallow chuckled to himself. The policewoman was a wonderful new twist on his plan.

"You're coming with me," the policewoman said as she handcuffed Red.

Red didn't say another word as the officer led him away.

Mallow picked up Red's backpack and started schlomping back to the hotel.

Everything went better than expected.

**Phase 4**

It was getting dark out as Mallow waited all evening for Red to return to the lobby. He had Red's backpack in his lap and Charmeleon sat in a chair next to him. Red kept all his pokeballs in his pack and Mallow was getting bored sitting around waiting, so he let Charmeleon out.

"I, like, still can't believe you did all that dude," Charmeleon said in awe.

"The best part hasn't even come yet," Mallow told him, "Red will probably be back from the police station any minute now."

Just as Mallow predicted, Red slowly walked through the door with his down in defeat. He glanced over at Mallow and a look of pure hate grew over him. He was wearing a pink tank top and terrible looking daisy dukes. It was the only clothes the police had at the station and just added insult to injury. He stomped over angrily to Mallow.

"YOU. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to explain to a police officer why I was running around naked?" Red scolded at the top of his lungs.

"Excuse me, sir?" A chubby man said walking over to Red.

"WHAT?" Red yelled at him.

"You need to leave here. You are no longer welcome back at this hotel." The man said. Judging by his suit Mallow guessed he was the manager. That, and the pin on his shirt that said "manager".

"Wh-what? Why?" Red wailed.

"Our cleaning lady found these in your room," the manager said throwing a plastic bag on the floor.

The bag contained the arts and crafts Mallow did earlier that looked surprisingly identical to real drugs.

"I didn't put those there!" Red argued.

"The cleaning found it in YOUR room. They were still lit and the putrid stink was spilling out of YOUR door. Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? Go huff potions at your own home." The manager nagged.

"I would never huff potions! Please! You have to believe me! I have no where else to stay!" Red pleaded.

"Go now before I call the cops on you."

"But-"

"NOW!"

Red snatched his backpack from Mallow and left the hotel. Mallow and Charmeleon quickly followed.

Red stood outside the hotel for several minutes in complete silence with his head hung low.

Without looking up, Red started talking to Mallow.  
"In just one afternoon, you've got me beat up, burned through all my cash LITTERALLY, got me kicked out of my beautiful room, ruined my image, got me arrested, made me wear these awful clothes, and now I'll always be forever known here as that crazy drug kid."

Red dug through his backpack and pulled out Mallow's pokeball. He crushed it in his hands and tossed the pieces into the wind.

"I release you!" Red shouted, "You are the, without a doubt, the WORST pokemon EVER. I hope you die a miserable and painful death all alone with no one that loves you! Goodbye!"

Red stomped away as he started crying into his hands. Charmeleon began to follow him, but then turned to Mallow.

"This has been fun, candle dude. I hope one day I get to, like, see again," the Charmeleon said, waving Mallow goodbye.

"Red is a total fruit-cake. But you're not that bad. Maybe we will meet again," Mallow replied and began schlomping away.

He turned and waved to Charmeleon as they went their separate ways.

A loud clap of thunder could be heard as several drops of rain fell from the dark sky. You could Red scream "OH COME ON!" In the distance as the rain got heavier.

Now Mallow needed a place to sleep for the night.

And he knew exactly where to go.


	9. Chapter 9: Escape From Cerulean City

**Chapter 9: Escape from Cerulean City**

Mallow dashed through the shaking room. A loud alarm was going off with a bright red light spinning around. He schlomped as fast as he could into a giant metal box. It almost looked like a tanning booth.

Mallow stood in the box for a second and turned around.

"YOU KNOW, YOU'RE AN ASS," an electronic voice said.

Mallow tried to reply but a loud blast went off and the ceiling started to-

"No! No! No!" Mallow interrupted, "I'm not doing this!"

The scene around him froze. Pieces from the crumbling ceiling stopped in mid-air.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" the electronic voice asked.

"This whole memory loss dream thing," Mallow replied, "You know, where I have a recurring dream and I don't know what it means."

"YOU CAN'T JUST STOP AN IMPORTANT PLOT POINT!"

"Actually, I can. This is MY dream, so technically I can do whatever I want."

Mallow snapped his fingers and a giant, purple, flying ice cream started twirling around the room.

"It's just like Scribblenauts up in here!"

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS."

"Listen, are you going to tell me anything important yet or not?"

"NOPE."

"So, it honestly doesn't matter if I go along with the dream or not, does it?"

"APPARENTLY, IT DOES. THIS 2 MINUTE SCENE IS THE ONLY SHARD OF MEMORY YOUR BRAIN HAS LEFT."

"Why?"

"WHY DO YOU THINK I KNOW?"

Mallow paused for a minute.

"Who are you?"

"A VOICE YOU USED TO KNOW."

"Well obviously! I mean what part of brain are you? This dream is created from my inner thoughts. If this was really just a dream, the scene would have just kept playing. But you're talking back, which means some part of my brain is trying to communicate with me. So I'll ask again, who are you?"

"I AM YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS. YOUR INNER THOUGHTS. I AM YOU."

"If you really are my subconscious, then tell me why my memories are wiped out."

"YOU KNOW I CAN'T DO THAT. I ONLY KNOW EVERYTHING YOU KNOW."

"Well why is my subconscious taking the form of a voice I don't remember?"

The room slowly began to shake again.

"WELL, I GUESS YOU WILL HAVE TO FIND OUT SOME OTHER TIME. IT APPEARS YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE WOKEN UP."

"No! Dammit, I want some answers!" Mallow protested.

But it was too late. The dream continued and the ceiling crashed down upon Mallow.

Then everything went black.

(0++0)

(That's right, I'm using line breaks now. What about it?)

A loud banging on the door jerked Mallow out of his sleep.

"Is someone in there? Hello?" A voice asked through the door.

Mallow groaned as he sat up on the exam room bed. He was in a walk-in clinic room in the pokemoncenter from yesterday. There were cabinets around the room stuffed full of medicine. A sink rested on one side, and a bunch of doctor equipment rested on a counter on the opposite side of the room.

The door opened as Chansey walked into the room. She dropped the clipboard she was carrying in surprise when she saw Mallow reclining on the patient bed.

"Good morning," Mallow yawned.

"Hey…you're that jerk from yesterday!" Chansey exclaimed, "The one that brought Mr. Pokey in!"

Mallow hopped off the bed and schlomped up to her.

"And you're that bitch that wasn't very helpful from yesterday. I'm glad we know each other so well."

"How did you even get in here?"

"You don't have that much security at night. And I would fire the one that guards the entrance. He likes spending time flirting with the nurses instead of doing his work."

"We still have a 4-digit lock on the clinic doors," She argued.

"Yeah, a _4_-digit lock. They don't take that long to crack," Mallow admitted.

Chansey paused.

"…What are you even doing here in the first place?"

"I needed a place to sleep for the night. A pokemoncenter would never turn away someone in need, right?"

Chansey let out a heavy sigh and picked up her clipboard.

"Enough about me, how is Pokey doing?" Mallow asked.

"The surgery went fine. We're actually releasing him within the hour. Bug type pokemon recover at remarkable rates," she replied.

"Where is he?"

"Down the hall in room 4C."

"Thank you," Mallow said as he headed out the door.

Mallow stopped before leaving and turned back to Chansey.

"Oh, and next time you want to get high off of the medical supplies, do it in the bathroom or something."

"I don't get high off of the medical supplies!" Chansey yelled at him.

"My bad, I didn't realize you went into empty exam rooms with a blank clipboard to do work. And I guess all those needle marks in your arm is a part of the job as well, huh?" Mallow said rolling his eyes.

Chansey blushed with embarrassment and dashed out of the room. Mallow also left and went down the hall to room 4C, just as she told him.

Inside the room, there were 2 beds. Each bed had a TV over it and a curtain in the middle of the 2. You know, standard hospital stuff. The bed nearest to the door had a Raichu hooked up to a beeping machine of some sorts. The large mouse looked like he was sleeping and had a tray filled with amazing looking pancakes at the foot of his bed. Pokey was in the other bed, reading a magazine he had found in the room to help pass some time. His wings were mummified in a mass of bandages.

"So I heard the surgery went well," Mallow said as he schlomped up to Pokey.

Pokey tossed away the magazine and turned to Mallow with that stupid grin on his face.

"Hi Mallow! The doc said it went very well. They told me I could be released very soon."

"Good. We're already behind schedule as it is," Mallow responded.

Mallow looked over at the Raichu and then back at Pokey.

"What's with sleeping beauty over there?"

"Poor fellow just got out of a very risky surgery. You missed the sweetest thing earlier today. His girlfriend came in and left some pancakes for him. She told me that when he finally wakes up, she wants the first thing he sees is a warm breakfast to show him that she still loves him."

Mallow grabbed the tray and hopped onto Pokey's bed.

"What are you doing?" Pokey asked, very confused.

"You can't just let good pancakes go cold," Mallow replied as he drowned the cakes in syrup.

Mallow turned to the Raichu.

"Hey, if I can have these, don't say anything at all."

The Raichu continued to lie there.

Mallow began eating the pancakes.

"See? He doesn't mind."

"You're terrible," Pokey said shaking his head.

"So how long until you can fly again?" Mallow asked as he shoveled the delicious feast into his mouth.

"The doctor said I should wait at least 24 hours before trying to fly again, otherwise I'll rip the stitches out."

Mallow pulled out a map Kanto and spread it out across the bed.

"Where did you get that?" Pokey asked, afraid of the answer.

"Calm down, I got this from a hotel lobby I was at," Mallow assured him.

Pokey scratched his head.

"Hotel lobby?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you at some point when I care enough to say it," Mallow pointed at the map, "Anyway, we are currently here at Cerulean City. We need to get here at Vermillion City. If we go south, we can take the tunnel in route 5 and head to route 6. From there, we should get to Vermillion probably late tonight. We'll stay the night and then board the S. in the morning."

"Why don't we just cut through Saffron City?" Pokey asked.

"I've had enough of the city life for a while. We're taking the tunnel."

Pokey shrugged.

"Whatever you say."

Mallow finished the last of the fluffy pancakes and placed the empty tray back on the Raichu's bed.

"I think you've rested enough," Mallow told Pokey as he wiped off his syrupy face on the Raichu's blanket, "We need to get back on the road. So get up and let's go."

Pokey nodded as he hopped out of bed. He slowly wobbled over to Mallow, carefully making sure his wings didn't touch anything.

He made it to Mallow after a few minutes of careful walking.

"Alright. I'm ready."

"About time..." Mallow mumbled to himself as he schlomped out of the room.

Pokey ignored him and followed.

The machine on Raichu's machine let out a musical beep. He was very slowly waking up. He blinked as he tried getting his eyes adjusted to the light. He smiled as tears started forming in his eyes. He had survived the surgery. Then the Raichu looked down at his feet and saw an empty plate resting on his feet.

The Raichu scratched his head in confusion.

"What the hell?"

(0++0)

"Hey, Mallow! Check it out! I think I'm starting to get the hang of this...uh...not being able to fly thing," Pokey said, hopping in circles like a kangaroo.

"I'm glad to hear that looking like an idiot makes you go faster," Mallow teased.

"Hey, say what you like, but let's see you go this fast."

Pokey hopped past Mallow just to prove his point. The two were heading towards the pokemoncenter lobby as they continued their journey. Mallow was just glad to finally be leaving Cerulean City.

As Pokey turned the corner, his bouncing came to a sudden halt.

"What's going on over there?" Pokey asked aloud.

Mallow schlomped up next to him to see what he was looking at. A Golduck with a strange V shaped hat and a cup of coffee was talking with the Chansey from earlier.

"Can I help you?" She asked the Golduck grumpily.

The Golduck took a drink of the coffee he was holding and pulled out an official looking badge. The badge made it very easy to tell he was police.

"My name is Officer Quackers, and I'm from the PCVC. I was hoping I could ask you a couple questions."

Pokey began hopping towards them, but Mallow grabbed his arm and pulled him back around the corner.

"Pokey, you idiot! Don't go near him!" Mallow scolded him.

"Ow! What's the big idea?" Pokey whined.

"We can't let the police see us!"

"Why not?"

"We broke into a museum, remember?"

"Oh yeah...heh heh, I forget..." Pokey said sheepishly.

Mallow was lucky that policewoman hadn't seen him last night. He didn't how fast news of his escapade spread, or if it was really that big of a deal, but it never hurts to be too careful.

"Why is that pokemon wearing that stupid hat?" Mallow asked Pokey.

Pokey peeked around the corner at the officer.

"That hat means he's from the V-Corp," Pokey told him, "They're a new crime fighting unit that specializes in dealing with criminal pokemon."

Mallow scratched his head.

"What does the V stand for?"

Pokey shrugged.

"Maybe it stands for very-good police?"

"Wait a minute..." Mallow paused to process the information; he then clenched his fist in anger, "Dammit! Pokey, we've got to get out of here, NOW."

"What are you talking about-" Pokey began to ask him, but Mallow dashed back through the hallway they came from before he could finish.

"Mallow! What are you doing?!" Pokey yelled to him as he followed.

"We're in trouble, Pokey!" Mallow cried back to him, not even stopping.

Pokey hopped up next him as they sped through the hallways.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm looking for another exit out of this crappy pokemoncenter."

Pokey hopped in front of Mallow and blocked his path.

"Ok, you need to tell me exactly what's going on."

"The guy said he was from the PCVC, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"SO, what do you think that stands for? Pewter City V-Corp! Which means that guy was sent from Pewter to find us!"

"How do you know he's after us specifically?"

"I don't. But we can't afford to be careless."

Mallow moved around Pokey and kept moving. Pokey quickly hopped up to him.

"The only thing I don't understand is how he got here. The way to Cerulean is cut off since Mt. Moon exploded," Mallow grumbled.

"I bet he went through Diglett's cave! It leads straight to Vermillion, and then he went north up to here."

Mallow stopped and looked at Pokey with anger.

"Are you telling me this whole time we could have went STRAIGHT TO VERMILLION!?"

Pokey shrugged.

"Well, it's too late to go back now."

Mallow let out a heavy sigh.

"I guess you're right. All that matters now is we've got to-"

"Well there you are!" A smug voice said from across the hall.

Mallow and Pokey turned around to see the Golduck from earlier walking towards. He took a swig of coffee and chuckled.

"That Chansey told me you were here, but I didn't expect to find you so fast."

Pokey tapped Mallow to get his attention.

"Mallow! Over there!"

Pokey pointed at a nearby flight of stairs. Mallow nodded and turned to Golduck.

"Are you here to arrest us?"

"Afraid so. Why? Are you going to run?" Golduck replied.

Mallow smiled.

"Well, duh."

Mallow took a large breath of air and let out a burst of Smog. The fumes coated the hallway, blocking the officer's vision.

"Let's go!" Mallow instructed.

The pair then dashed up the stairwell as the smog dispersed. The Golduck coughed violently.

"S-stop!" He sputtered.

The Golduck ran after the pair and headed up the stairs, too.

And the chase was on.

(0++0)

Mallow and Pokey reached the end of stairs and burst through a door. They were on the roof of the pokemoncenter. The roof was bright red and had very smooth tiling. You could practically see all of Cerulean City from up there they were so high from the ground. It was a calm, beautiful morning as a small zephyr rolled across the rooftop, something you could only enjoy if you weren't being chased by the cops.

"Now what do we do?" Pokey groaned, "We've got nowhere left to run!"

"Shut up, I'll think of something," Mallow said, trying to convince himself more than Pokey.

The stairwell door burst open as the Golduck charged onto the roof.

"I'm Officer Quackers, from the PCVC, and I'm placing you two under arrest!" He declared as he pointed at them.

Mallow giggled.

"Seriously? Your name is Quackers?"

Quackers scowled at Mallow. He finished off the last of his coffee and tossed the empty cup off the roof.

"Listen here, you twit, I'm bringing you in one way or the other. So you decide whether it's going to be the easy way, or the hard way."

"Is there a third way?" Pokey asked hopefully.

"Come on Pokey, you should know by now that everything we do is the hard way..." Mallow sighed.

"If that's the way it has to be," Quackers said, "Then let's dance!"

Quackers sucked in air just as Mallow does whenever he's going to use Smog, but this was different. Quackers belly began growing until he looked like he was about to burst. When he couldn't hold it anymore, he let out an ear-shattering shriek that would put even the loudest amps to shame. Mallow and Pokey covered their ears and they both screamed in agony. Quackers stopped the outburst, and the two fell flat on their stomachs. Pokey tried getting up the best he could, but his legs felt wobbly and weak.

"What the hell was that?" Mallow cried as his body shook violently.

Suddenly, a massive jet of water shot out of Quacker's webbed feet.

"Aqua Jet!" Quackers yelled.

He shot himself like a rocket and ran straight into Mallow. Mallow was sent flying and landed on the opposite side of the roof, face first.

Mallow groaned in pain. He felt like he was just hit by a truck.

Pokey's drills grew a dark shade of purple as he used Poison Sting. He jumped and attempted jabbing Quackers in the back.

But Quackers was fast. He rolled out of the way and Pokey crashed into the rooftop. Quackers reacted quickly; his forehead began glowing a blue-ish aura.

"Zen Head-Butt!" Quackers yelled.

He head-butted Pokey with his glowing dome. He then flung his head up and a psychic blast burst from the glowing forehead. Pokey was sent skyward and he landed close to where Mallow was.

"Holy crap," Pokey groaned, "What is up with this guy?"

"It's simple really," Quackers explained, "I first used Screech, which sharply lowers your defense. So now my already powerful, super-effective moves are even stronger!"

Mallow and Pokey got back on their feet.

"We've got to be careful," Pokey instructed, "This guy's a lot tougher than I thought."

"Really? I didn't know," Mallow replied, rolling his eyes.

Pokey quickly used Double Team and created 8 clones, and the small army hopped at Quackers.

"Interesting," Quackers admitted, "A Double Team user, not many of those around."

One of the Pokey's jumped at him with a Twineedle and another with Poison Sting. Quackers rolled out of the way again, and the two Pokeys collided into each other. They disappeared in a puff of smoke. Two more Pokeys shot String Shot at him, capturing Quackers in a sticky holding. A third Pokey charged at Quackers who couldn't move. Or so they thought. Quackers used Aqua Jet, shooting himself straight upwards. The Pokey's who were attached to the String Shot were pulled skyward with him. Quackers then shot down onto the charging Pokey, destroying the clone. He then spun his body in a circle flinging the two attached clones around like an Olympic hammer. When the strength of the string couldn't hold on anymore, it burst and the momentum of the spinning sent the clones over the edge of the roof, destroying them instantly.

Mallow took this distracted opportunity to do a surprise attack. He shot a jet of fire at Quackers feet and a large Fire Spin expanded out of the roof, encasing Quackers in a prison of flames.

Quackers quickly used Aqua Jet and shot out of the flames, using the water from his webbed feet to dowse the flames. He shot towards Mallow at a blinding speed. A Pokey jabbed Quackers with a Twineedle and redirected his path away from Mallow. Quackers stopped, and landed on his feet. He let out a very amused laugh.

"I can't believe you two have lasted this long," Quackers said, "Then again, I should expect no else from someone who robbed a museum with a pack of cards."

"Those weren't just any cards; they were Yu-gi-oh! Cards," Mallow corrected him.

"Whatever!" Quackers snarled, "This has gone on long enough! Time for the big finisher!"

Quackers hopped in front of the stairwell and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and became looked like either he was getting really focused or really had to fart. Suddenly, the ground shook violently. The pokemoncenter rocked back and forth as if they were having an earthquake. The three Pokeys tried their best to stay on, but one of them fell off, becoming clone dust. Mallow flailed his arms around as he tried to keep his own balance. Then as sudden as the shaking began, it came to an abrupt stop. Quackers raised his arm above his head like he was raising the roof (Get it? Roof jokes! Ha!).

"Surf!" Quackers yelled.

Then it appeared. A giant, and I mean GIANT, wave slowly rose behind the pokemoncenter. The wave towered over the red building and a dark, mammoth, shadow blanketed the roof. For those of you who don't understand the horror of seeing Surf in real life, let me just say it would make any tidal wave look like a splash in the kiddie pool.

"What the pancakes is that!?" The two Pokeys cried in terror.

Mallow's jaw practically unhinged as it hung from his face in awe.

One of the Pokeys dashed over to Mallow.

"Mallow! We've got to get out of here!" Pokey shouted over the roar of the wave.

"I know but how?" Mallow yelled back, "We're on the roof! The stairs are being blocked by rubber ducky over there and you can't fly us off thanks to your stupid surgery!"

"I know, but you better think of something, FAST."

Mallow closed his eyes and tried thinking as quickly as he could. They had to get out of there...but how? _How_?

"Sorry, but when you do something bad, you're eventually going to have to face the consequences!" Quackers yelled.

Quackers flung his arms down and the wave began to fall.

"Come on, Mallow! Hurry!" Pokey begged.

"I got it!" Mallow cried, "Pokey, hold onto me and jump off the roof!"

"What? Are you crazy? How is that-?"

"Dammit Pokey! Does it look like we have time to argue about this!? JUST DO IT!"

Pokey nodded and grabbed Mallow. He hopped to the edge as fast as he could. He made a silent prayer, and jumped off. Just as he jumped off, the wave crashed into the pokemoncenter. The poor building shook as the force of the water collided on top of it. Several tiles of the roof were flung everywhere, and door to the stairwell was crushed to oblivion. The last Pokey clone that was still on the roof was obliterated, and smoke was puffed out everywhere.

"Quick! Now use String Shot on the edge of the roof!" Mallow commanded as the two were falling to their demise.

Pokey lifted one of his arms and did exactly as he was told. The string blasted from his hand-drills and firmly stuck to the roof. It stretched and the elastic slowed them down. But it could not hold forever. When Pokey and Mallow were five feet from the ground, it snapped, hurdling the two towards the rock hard sidewalk. Although the landing was very painful, the String Shot had taken away just enough momentum to let them survive.

The Surf washed off the roof and Quackers let out a sad sigh.

"That was easier than I expected it to be. It's a shame really. I was hoping they would make things a lot more interesting around here..."

He walked over to the edge to see where the bodies had landed. Then he gasped in surprise. He saw Mallow and Pokey running towards the south exit.

"They actually survived!?"

He quickly dashed towards the stairwell to chase after them, but it had been crushed by the Surf and was now inaccessible.

"Crap!" Quackers yelled.

He pulled out a walkie-talkie and pressed buttons madly on it.

"Officer Sunny! Copy, are you there?!"

"I read you Quackers, what's up?" A voice said through the walkie-talkie, "Did you get them already?"

"No, they got away!"

"What? Where are they now?"

"They're heading towards the south exit! You're the fastest member in the V-Corp, you've got to stop them! You cannot let them leave this city! I repeat, they cannot leave this city!

Is that clear!?"

"Yes sir!"

Quackers shut off his walkie-talkie.

"Guess I spoke too soon..."

(0++0)

"Do you think we got away safely?" Pokey asked.

"I highly doubt it," Mallow admitted, "My guess is Quackers probably called for back-up. As long as we stay in Cerulean City, we're not safe."

"So then how close are we to getting out of here?"

"Route 5 is just around the corner. We're almost there."

Mallow and Pokey were dashing through the streets as they headed out of Cerulean City. Just a little further...

As Pokey turned the corner, he came to an abrupt stop.

"What now?" Mallow whined.

As he schlomped next to Pokey and now knew exactly why Pokey stopped. In front of the exit to Route 5 was a large barricade of police cars. They were arranged in a line, completely cutting off the exit. There were a few cars not in the line so that they could leave the line without providing an exit.

"Crap!" Mallow stomped, "I should've known this would be here!"

"What do you mean?" Pokey asked.

"They came up from Vermillion, so it was only natural to seal off that exit."

Mallow looked around a noticed a nearby bike shop. It was out of sight of the police line so it should suffice as a temporary hiding spot. He headed towards it and beckoned Pokey to follow him. Pokey obeyed and the two went to the shop.

The shop was organized almost like a car shop. The lot in front of the shop was littered with various bike models and giant "Sale!" stickers posted everywhere. A building stood in the middle of the ocean of bikes with a "Sorry, we're closed!" sign hung on its glass doors.

Mallow hid behind one of the bigger bikes. Pokey also tried to hide, but being a giant bug he stood out more than he was trying to.

"Great, now what do we do?" Pokey grumbled.

"Unfortunately, the only option left is to get out through the east exit, seeing as how both west and south are blocked and north goes to a dead end," Mallow replied.

Mallow pulled out the map.

"Once we get out, we need to head through Rock Tunnel and stay the night at Lavender Town. Then, we shall go down route 12 and turn left here. We should then arrive before the S. takes off that night."

"How do you know that it leaves at night?"

"I don't. I'm just really hoping it does."

"Ok, so we got to get to the east exit, let's go!"

Mallow sighed. Getting out of Cerulean City was going to be more trouble than he thought. Pokey got up and began hopping away.

"Where are you going?" Mallow yelled at him.

"To the exit. Duh." Pokey responded.

"We can't leave that easily, you moron! There's bound to be some other cops looking for us, and unless you can outrun a car then maybe we should think of a plan."

"Oh, I guess you're right," Pokey mumbled.

Mallow looked around the bike lot. There had to be something here he could use. That's when it caught his eye. Mallow tilted his head and smiled. He was getting an idea in his head.

Pokey saw that look in his eye.

"What is it? Did you think of something?"

Mallow began schlomping towards a set of bikes without responding.

Pokey looked at the bikes he was going to and he groaned.

"Oh no! Please tell me you're joking."

The bikes he was looking at were not just any bikes, they were kiddie bikes. They had a brown, straw basket on their handles. The seat was glittery and pink frilly things dangled off the side of each handle.

Mallow opened the basket and hopped inside, closing the lid on himself. Perfect fit. Mallow popped his head back out of the basket. Interesting how the straw wasn't burned by the fire on his head, but whatever.

He then turned towards Pokey.

"How good are you at riding a bike?"

"Geez…how did I know you wanted to steal a bike? But...really? A kiddie bike?"

Mallow nodded.

"It's perfect. The basket is big enough for me to ride in. You are pretty tall, but not as tall as a human, so you should barely be able to ride this. Since you can't fly, a bike is our fastest mode of transportation. Plus, you have no hands, so not being able to hold the handlebars will make it tricky for you to turn in. So, the training wheels on this baby will help keep your balance."

Mallow then grabbed the frilly decor.

"Plus I heard pink was in this year," He said sarcastically.

Mallow had a good point, but Pokey shook it off.

"This is insane! We'll never be able to get away from the police on a bike meant for a 5-year old!"

"Don't worry. We won't have to," Mallow grinned.

He grinned not a happy grin. More like a diabolical grin. The grin you have on your face when you think of "accidentally" pushing your enemy down a flight of stairs.

Pokey looked at Mallow's grin with worry.

"What...what did you have in mind?"

(0++0)

Sunny looked out the window with unease. She began chewing on her paw nervously. Sunny was an Arcanine, and many people believed she was one of the best V-Corp members on the force. She was the youngest in recorded history to graduate from her training and on top of that she finished at the top of her class. She had amazing strength with very powerful moves, and her speed was second to none. But she had one fatal flaw: her timid nature made her very flimsy on the actual field.

"Oh dear, they even managed to get away from Quackers," Sunny mumbled to herself, "Now it's up to me to get them? Gosh, I don't think I was trained for something like this..."

Sunny was sitting in one of the police cars blocking the way to Vermillion City. Officer Jenny sat next to her angrily tapping her fingernails on the steering wheel.

Jenny turned to Sunny.

"Where are they!? Shouldn't they be here by now!?"

Sunny gave a nervous shrug and Jenny went back to impatiently staring out the window.

"I can't believe this," Jenny grumbled, "We should have bagged those freaks by now."

That's when she saw him.

"Hey! Over there! By the bike shop! Is...is that what I think that is?" Jenny yelled pointing out the window.

Sunny looked over. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly. That Beedrill was riding away on a kid's bike. It had to be the one they were looking for...but a kid's bike? Really?

Officer Jenny had the same look of disbelief on her face. Without taking her eyes off of Pokey, she grabbed her walkie-talkie.

"Uh...cars 7 and 13?" She spoke into it, "I found our target."

"I hear you car 20, where are they?" A man's voice replied back through the speaker.

"It appears the Beedrill is heading west on a little girl's bike."

"...I'm sorry could you repeat that? I thought you said a little girl's bike."

"I did."

"...Oh."

"Yeah..."

"Uh, anyway, is the Litwick there, too?"

"Negative. I only see the Beedrill. I'm going to attempt to arrest him, get some cars to follow me for back-up."

"Roger that," And the man clicked off.

Jenny turned on her siren and drove after Pokey. Sunny attached her seatbelt and dug her paws into the seat. She never did like car rides.

Pokey must have heard the sirens, because he shot off down the road. He went surprisingly quickly for riding on a children's bike. Not fast enough, though. Jenny pushed down on the gas and caught up with him no problem. No matter how fast he went, Pokey can't outrun a car on a bike. Especially on the type of bike he was riding.

Jenny turned on the car's speaker.

"This is the police. Please step off the bike now," She spoke and her voice projected out around her.

Pokey leaned in towards the basket as if he was listening to it. He sat back up and gave an approving nod. Suddenly, he made a sharp right turn into a nearby gap between buildings. The gap was way too thin for any car to follow, but he could go through it without a problem.

"Did you see that?" Jenny said to Sunny, "He turned after listening to that basket. I bet you anything that the Litwick is hiding in there!"

She then picked up her walkie-talkie.

"The Litwick is with the Beedrill! I repeat, the Litwick is with the Beedrill! I want all the cars to head to the opposite end of the street and stay on his tail. Over."

Jenny sped up the car. If she can get to the end of the street he went on, she can trap him with the other police coming the other way.

Sunny scratched her head.

_That's strange_, she thought, _Why are they heading towards the west exit? Don't they know it's been blocked off since Mt. Moon was destroyed_?

Jenny raced her way as fast as she could to the end of the street and turned the corner. As she was turning she saw another police car turning onto the same street. They must have had the same idea. The other driver nodded her to go first, so she did. The two cars turned onto the street. Jenny could see Pokey far away biking towards them. He was trying his best to get away from the cars Jenny had called earlier.

"He fell right into our trap," Jenny giggled.

Sunny frowned. She wasn't as sure.

Pokey gasped when he saw the cars in front of him. He had nowhere to go. The cars were closing in on him and fast. Then he smiled. All of sudden, he leapt off the bike and rolled on the street, sending the bike tumbling at Jenny and Sunny's car.

"What the hell!? The Litwick is still in the basket! What is he doing!?" Jenny panicked.

The bike crashed into the car and flipped onto the windshield, shattering the glass into millions of shards. Jenny slammed on her brakes as hard as she could trying to get the car to stop. Unfortunately, the other car from earlier didn't see her stop and rammed right into the back of her car, sending her skidding forward. The other cars coming from the other end also tried to brake, but it was too late. The cars crashed into each other and created a huge pile of car wreck.

Jenny and Sunny spilled out of what was left of their car. Jenny wiped blood from a cut on her forehead away and Sunny scraped shards of glass out of her fur. The other police that got out ok went to try and help the ones that were still stuck. The remains of the bike slowly rolled off the hood of the car and fell on the ground. The basket broke off from the handlebars and opened up. Sunny wobbled over to take a closer look. It was empty!

She glanced at Pokey who was trying to limp away. Apparently he did a terrible job of landing and must have broken something. Sunny dashed over to Pokey.

"Wh-where's Litwick?" She asked shakily.

Pokey laughed.

"Mallow? He was never here!"

"But I saw you listening to that basket!"

"Actually, what you saw was just my great acting at work."

Pokey let out a painful laugh.

"Sorry, but you've just been punk'd."

Suddenly, Pokey exploded into a puff of smoke.

"Oh no!" Sunny exclaimed, "That must have just a Double Team! If that's case, then the real pair must be..."

Sunny got Jenny's walkie-talkie from the wreckage of the car and handed it to her. She then gave Jenny a signal using her paws.

"Are you sure?" Jenny asked.

Sunny nodded.

"Alright, you head there now, I'll get there as fast as I can," Jenny instructed.

Sunny gave a salute and a white glow began to shine on her. Then, out of nowhere, the light exploded off her and she charged off at an alarming speed. Jenny then adjusted her walkie-talkie and clicked it on.

"We're going to need a lot more back up down here," She said into it.

Jenny cringed with rage. Just who exactly _are_ these two, anyway?

(0++0)

"Hey! I can see the exit!" Pokey exclaimed.

Mallow opened the lid and sat up from the basket. He looked around. No cops or V-Corp, so that must mean everything went according to his plan. Mallow actually stole 2 bikes. Pokey then made a clone and sent him out first to bait them towards the west exit while he and the real Pokey slipped away to the east exit, completely on the other side of town. The clone will then act as if Mallow was with him to make sure no additional cars went out searching for him. Then by the time they figured out it was a decoy, Mallow and Pokey will be too far away for them to ever catch them in time before they escape. A perfect plan, perfectly executed.

"Nicely done, Mallow," Pokey complimented, "We'll be out of here in no time!"

"Did you expect anything less?" Mallow boasted smugly.

Pokey continued biking and came to the exit. Mallow looked behind them and saw something coming in at breakneck speed.

"What's that?" Mallow said pointing behind Pokey.

The object sped right into the bike with a massive smash, flipping the bike through the air along with Mallow and Pokey. Pokey reacted quickly and landed on his feet, making sure not to hurt his wings. Mallow was not so lucky as he face planted directly into the gravel road.

Sunny sighed in relief. She made it just in time.

Mallow stood back and turned to her.

"Hey! Watch where you're goi-" He yelled, but stopped when he saw Sunny's v-shaped hat.

"Oh crap! Not another V-Corp!" Pokey whined.

Sunny just stared at them blankly.

"Eh? What's wrong with you?" Mallow asked.

Sunny's legs began to tremble.

_Litwick and Beedrill are right in front of me, and I charged right in without a plan!_ she thought, _Now what am I going to do? I have to fight 2 criminals at once. Alone! I'm not sure I was trained for this!_

"So uh...can we go now?" Pokey asked confusingly.

Sunny snapped back to her senses.

"I'm pl-pl-placing you t-t-two under a-a-a-a-a-a-a-arrest!" She sputtered nervously at them.

"And if we refuse?" Mallow said.

"Then I'll t-take you by f-f-force!" Sunny proclaimed.

Pokey and Mallow looked at each other. They shrugged and knew there was no other way.

"Let's try and hurry this up, alright, Pokey?" Mallow instructed.

"Yeah I know..." Pokey agreed.

Mallow sucked in air and shot an Ember directly at Sunny. She jumped back a little in surprise, but was not successfully able to dodge the fireball.

Then something odd happened.

Instead of hitting her, the Ember appeared to absorb directly into her fur.

"What the what?" Mallow exclaimed.

He then shot 3 fireballs directly at her feet as he prepared a Fire Spin. Jets of fire spun out from under her and encased her in a wall of flames. Or so it was supposed to. Instead, the fire was sucked into her fur exactly like Ember was.

"What's going on!?" Mallow demanded.

"It's, uh, my ability, Flash Fire," She muttered, "It allows me to absorb any fire type moves and powers my own up."

"So basically you're immune to fire-type moves?" Pokey summarized.

Well, there went half of Mallow's move set.

"Ok, that doesn't mean we're done for. Go strut your stuff, Pokey!"

Pokey nodded and created 7 additional clones that charged rapidly at her. Suddenly, Sunny's body began to glow and a bright white light emitted from her.

"Extremespeed!" She yelled.

The light exploded off of her and she charged at the Pokey's with unbelievable speed. You could barely see her she was going so quickly. She dashed in a zigzag fashion and slammed into all the Pokey's. Before Mallow could even blink, all the clones were destroyed and Pokey flung down the road.

"Wow that's fast," Mallow admitted.

"Please! I really don't want to this!" Sunny begged.

"Fine! Then let's not," Mallow turned to Pokey, "Time to get out of here!"

Mallow used Smog and puffed a massive cloud of toxin at Sunny, hoping to escape the way he did with Quackers earlier. Pokey got the message and hopped down the road towards the exit with Mallow right behind him. Sunny cringed as she was enveloped in the fumes, but she reacted quickly. She held her breath and blindly charged after them.

"No! I-I'm not going to let you get away!" Sunny sputtered.

Mallow turned around in surprise as Sunny dashed up right next to him. She opened her mouth and her razor sharp teeth became pitch black. They began to grow at a rapid rate until her mammoth molars were bigger than Mallow. With a ferocious chomp, she crunched on Mallow's stubby arm and sunk her fangs into his ghostly skin. Sunny threw her head backwards and let go, flinging Mallow behind her. A chunk of his "skin" came off and she spit it on the ground. Gross. Without a second thought, she charged over and bit down on Pokey as well, flinging him backwards.

The Smog cleared and Sunny's teeth returned to normal. Now she stood directly in the path out of Cerulean City. Mallow rubbed his arm where he was bitten. If ghosts could bleed, he probably would right now.

"Geez, this chick knows Crunch, too? Do all these V-Corps have good type coverage?" Pokey moaned.

Sunny turned to Pokey and began sucking in air. A dry heat began emitting from her mouth.

"Flamethrower!" Sunny said.

Then a huge jet of flames shot out of her mouth and burned towards Pokey. Any greenery nearby was singed and the air around the flames practically melted from the intensity of the heat.

"Pokey, watch out!" Mallow cried.

Mallow dove in front of the blast and the destructive flame scorched poor Mallow.

"No! Mallow!" Pokey gasped.

Then something odd happened. The Flamethrower was sucked into the flame on Mallows head like a sponge. The purple flicker seemed to feed off the flames and it expanded to 3x larger than Mallow's body. He then sucked in air to prepare an Ember. The flame on his head was sucked into him along with the air. He turned his head to the sky and shot the Ember into the atmosphere. This Ember was different, it was as big, if not bigger, than Sunny's Flamethrower. The giant fireball flew off in the distance and Mallow fell back on his ghostly cheeks from the sheer strength of the blast.

"No way...Mallow has the ability Flash Fire, too?" Pokey exclaimed.

"Huh, I didn't see that coming," Mallow said still staring at where he shot the Ember in awe.

"You protected me Mallow," Pokey grinned, "I guess you do care!"

"Actually, I don't. It's just that would have been super effective to you and not very effective against me. It's simple logic," Mallow explained, "The fact I have the ability Flash Fire was just stroke of luck."

Mallow would have realized his ability earlier, but this is his first fight with a fire type pokemon. At least, the first fight with a fire type he remembers.

Pokey hopped up next to him.

"Well thanks anyway, bro."

Mallow stood up and gave him a, "Sure, whatever," look. Pokey squatted down and prepared to launch himself at Sunny.

"Hang on a second," Mallow said stopping him.

"What? Why?" Pokey demanded.

"Something's not right here," Mallow mumbled.

Mallow stared at Sunny. Sunny stared uncomfortably at Mallow. Pokey just looked back and forth confused. Several seconds passed. Then 30. Then 40. Then a whole minute went by. The three pokemon stood without making a move.

"Well!? What!?" Pokey finally snapped.

"Just as I thought," Mallow spoke.

"What!? Whaaaaat!?" Pokey demanded.

"She hasn't made any attacks yet," Mallow explained, "Since the beginning, she's been doing nothing but counterattack. The only move she made was to prevent us from leaving."

"So?"

"So that means this whole time she's just been-"

Mallow was cut-off as loud sirens blasted towards them. A butt-load of flashing lights could be seen racing their way to them. Police car after police car rolled in and surrounded Mallow and Pokey in a semicircle. Sunny stood her ground in front of the only remaining exit they had left as rows of cars lined up. Dozens of cars piled in until there was a small army of police.

"-stalling," Mallow finished glumly.

The police piled out of their cars followed by just as many V-Corps. The cops hid behind the hood of the car, so they were ready for anything and aimed their guns at the startled duo. You know, just how they do in the movies.

I'd like to also add that these weren't guns you're thinking of with bullets and what not. Without going into too much detail about the science of how it works, these guns basically work like the move Spite, and it drains all the PP a pokemon has leaving them unable to use any moves and paralyzes their body.

The V-Corps did the same as they prepared to use their own moves if necessary. This cluster of V-Corp was compiled of many different species of pokemon, so there was no telling exactly what they were capable of.

Officer Jenny came out of the middle car with a microphone. There was a Band-Aid on her forehead from where she got cut in the chase earlier. It was obvious that it was hastily done as it barely covered the actual wound. Quackers stepped out the other side with a coffee in his hands and a satisfied smile on his face. He must have finally found a way off the pokemoncenter roof.

"Put your hands on your head and don't make a move. You're completely surrounded, so don't even think about doing any funny business!" Jenny instructed.

Mallow turned towards Sunny.

"I got to hand it to you, fur ball, that was pretty well-played."

"Oh, uh...thank you," She replied uneasily, "After Beedrill wrecked our cars it was pretty obvious we needed a lot more back up if we were going to arrest you, so I stalled until Jenny could get them here."

Pokey leaned over to Mallow.

"Now what do we do? There's no way we'll ever be able to beat all these cops or outrun their cars."

Mallow cringed for a second. Pokey was right. There wasn't much they could do right now. He didn't want to feel like he finally got outsmarted, but what else could he do?

Unless...

"I'll make you a deal!" Mallow yelled, "We'll go without a fight if and ONLY on one condition."

"What makes you think you're in any position to make demands?" Quackers scoffed.

"Mallow? What are you doing?" Pokey panicked.

"I think you and I can both agree on," Mallow yelled back, ignoring Pokey, "I want to ride in your car."

Quackers spit out his coffee in surprise.

"Are you an idiot? Don't you know I'm the best V-Corp here? Why on earth would you want to ride with me?"

Quackers said he was the best not boast, but because he actually was the best. He was paired with Sunny because the two not only worked well together, but also because she was the second best.

"I think you're the idiot if you don't think this is a good idea," Mallow said.

Quackers frowned.

"Hmm...I suppose you're right. If you were to ever try anything, I'd be right there the whole time," He admitted, "I don't know what you're up to, but I suppose I can do it."

Mallow smiled.

"I'm so glad we came to an agreement."

Quackers snapped his webbed fingers and two V-Corp Scythers carefully walked over to Mallow and Pokey and hand-cuffed them.

"We're in real trouble now," Pokey groaned.

Mallow and Pokey walked over to Quacker's car, as everyone's eyes remained locked on them.

"When I say jump, hop into the car, understood?" Mallow whispered to Pokey.

Pokey gave a confused nod.

Mallow and Pokey arrived at the car. The stood next to the passenger's side front seat and stopped. Quackers walked up to them and finished his coffee. He chuckled to himself.

"I got to say, I'm a little disappointed you haven't tried anything yet. What? No grand escape plan?" Quackers said mockingly.

"Before I'm locked up, there's something I need to tell you, Quackers," Mallow said to him.

"And what's that?" Quackers asked.

"I just wanted to say that I-ah-ah-AH," Mallow put his hand over his nose like he was going to sneeze, "AH-AHCHOOOOOOO!"

With a loud sneeze, Mallow let out Smog which enveloped the car, blinding everyone not right next to it. Mallow faked the sneeze to get the air in his lungs required to use Smog. He quickly hopped up and grabbed the car door handle, pulling in open.

"Jump!" Mallow yelled.

Pokey did as he was told and hopped into the car. Mallow was about to follow when Quackers grabbed his arm. He pulled Mallow up directly in front of his face.

"You're not going anywhere, you little shit!" Quackers said, filled with rage.

Mallow just gave him an evil grin.

"Bite me."

Mallow's eyes began to glow and two lights shot out from his eyes and flashes into Quackers face. A direct Confuse Ray. Quackers dropped Mallow as he shook his head from the confusion. Mallow rolled into the car and hopped over Pokey in the passenger seat and onto the driver's seat.

"What are you waiting for!?" Officer Jenny yelled at the other cops, "Shoot them!"

"We have no clear shot! We might hit Quackers by accident!" Someone replied.

"Dammit!" She yelled, tossing her hat on the ground.

"You don't know how nor can you drive, so what did this accomplish?" Pokey told Mallow.

"I don't have to know how," Mallow told him, "I told them I wanted to go in Quackers car because it's in a direct line to the exit. All we have to do is go!"

Pokey blinked in surprise. Mallow was able to use his moves to get them in the perfectly aligned car. By surrendering, they didn't drain his PP with the guns, making him able to execute his plan. Pokey was impressed he thought all this through in such a short amount of time.

Mallow rolled onto the floor and leaned on the gas pedal. The car shot forward out of the Smog cloud and raced towards Sunny, who was directly in front of the exit path. Sunny panicked and rolled out of the way, barely avoiding being road kill. The cops shot madly at the car, but all they managed to do to it was bust out the windows and dent it really badly. The continued down the path until they went through the tiny one car road that lead straight out of Cerulean City.

"Don't let them get away!" Jenny commanded.

Everyone must have heard her, because they got back in their cars and the battalion of police chased after them.

"Are they following us?" Mallow asked Pokey from the floor.

Pokey looked at the rear-view mirror.

"Yes."

Mallow switched the car into reverse. Odd how he knew how, but that didn't really matter to him at this point.

"Ok, listen closely, I need you to make a clone to stay here and keep this car moving. Then we've got to jump out of here Chinese-fire drill style. Got it?"

"Alright, can do," Pokey confirmed.

He used Double Team and made a clone. Mallow got out from the floor and the clone slammed his foot where Mallow just was.

"3-2-1-JUMP!" Mallow yelled.

The two opened the car doors and rolled out. Actually, I should say just Mallow rolled out. Pokey didn't want to risk hurting his wings, so he kind of face planted instead.

The car, now in reverse, was sent rolling backwards at the police cars coming through the small exit. With an awesome crash, the cars slammed into each other, making a huge road block. There was no way anyone was going to be able to follow them now.

Quackers tossed his cup into the air with frustration. Sunny sat down on the ground with disbelief. The police in the blockage wreck moaned with pain.

Mallow and Pokey raced away as fast as they could.

"I can't believe that worked!" Mallow said to Pokey.

"I can't believe it's not butter!"

"I can't believe you just said that..."

They continued to run without looking back.

They did it.

They got away.

(0++0)

Quackers was pacing in circles. It had been an hour since Mallow and Pokey left the city. Jenny was helping the officers in the car wreck free from their ruined rides. The total damage from both car crashes today was going to cost the police a fortune. All in all, today was a major let down for Quackers.

Sunny walked up next to him carrying two cups of coffee

She handed one to him.

"Don't be so mad, Quackers. I'm sure we'll get them next time."

Quackers took it gladly and sniffed in that delicious coffee smell.

"I'm not mad. I'm just frustrated that I wasn't able to stop them when they were right next to me."

Quackers took a sip of his coffee and looked over at the car wreck.

"None of this would have happened if I got them on the roof."

Sunny took a sip of her own brew.

"Ah, forget about it, Quackers. They played all of us. You're not to blame."

"I suppose you're right. At least there's some good news."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"I think I have a way we can catch them again. But it might take a little time to set up."

"Really? That's great!"

"I guess..."

Quackers took a swig of his coffee. Man he loved that stuff.

"I just wish I knew who those two were. We went through all that trouble today and we didn't get a single strand of DNA..."

"I have a surprise for you," Sunny said happily.

She pulled out a plastic bag. Inside contained the chunk of flesh she bit off Mallow earlier.

"Is that the Litwick's skin?" Quackers asked.

"Yep. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get anything from the Beedrill, but..."

Quackers took the bag and examined it.

"Are you kidding? This is great! Maybe today wasn't a waste after all."

"That's good to hear."

"Go get a human and a car that's not broken. We're going to take this to the lab."

Sunny gave a salute.

"Yes sir!"

She dashed away. Quackers looked more closely at the bag.

_Just who exactly are you, Litwick?_ He thought to himself.

He clutched the bag and walked after Sunny. It was about time he found out.


End file.
